Re: Smart pointers was RE: [GD-General] Compile times

[Thatcher U. <tu...@tu...>]

On Dec 16, 2002 at 04:05 -0800, Jesse Jones wrote:
> At 8:16 PM -0600 12/15/02, brian hook wrote:
> >Assuming that we're defining "smart pointer" as ref-counted,
> >templatized pointer access, then here are the typical bugaboos:

[snip]

> Well, what are the options?

Brian and Ignacio mentioned handles.  It seems to me that handles are
equivalent to smart pointers, with a few differences in details.  The
similarities:

* If your handle manager keeps a ref-count (or something similar) to
  avoid deleting an object that has an active handle, then handles
  essentially behave like ref-counted smart pointers.

* If your handle manager is allowed to delete objects when it feels
  like it, then handles are essentially the same as weak pointers,
  with a strong pointer in the handle manager.

And the differences:

* Weak pointers are bigger than handles (the implementation we use has
  an object pointer plus two list link pointers).

* Handles are hard to debug!

* Handles involve a little extra plumbing in the client, to extract a
  real pointer.

-- 
Thatcher Ulrich
http://tulrich.com