Re: noob question - destructors - freeing memory...

From:

someone <newsboost@gmail.com>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.c++

Date:

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 08:54:00 +0100

Message-ID:

<jdmf2p$tbj$1@dont-email.me>

On 12/31/2011 07:07 AM, LR wrote:

someone wrote:

On 12/31/2011 04:50 AM, Garrett Hartshaw wrote:

On Sat, 31 Dec 2011 02:43:28 +0100, someone<newsboost@gmail.com> wrote:

Note: int main()
{
Base * b = new Derived();
throw std::exception();
delete b;
return 0;
}

In the above, the delete expression is never reached, so destructors are
not called.

That is a big problem/issue in my program, I think...

So if I allocate memory in my constructor, and I never call the
destructor and I keep running and exiting, running and exiting the
program, then I end up using all my memory because I never free'd it?

May I ask why you're allocating memory? I mean why are you writing new
explicitly in your code? What are you trying to do?

Because:

I have some graphical objects that should be displayed on the screen.
When I instantiate these objects, I don't know how many coordinates
there are. When I know it, I use new to allocate memory for x,y and
z-coordinates. It's pretty lame, if I should not allocate memory
dynamically... It's hard to believe, it is so cumbersome. It would also
look bad if I separate the x,y and z-coordinates from the graphical
objects themselves. And even that would not solve the
call-the-destructor-problem to free memory.

If this is an issue, a smart pointer (boost::shared_ptr,
boost::scoped_ptr, etc:) should be used.

Ooh, damn...

I hoped, I could avoid having to learn something new and timeconsuming
like boost...

Isn't there an easier solution without including more libraries?

What compiler and version are you using? You may find what you need in
a header that shipped with your compiler.

1) g++ (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.1-9ubuntu3) 4.6.1
Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

and

2) Visual studio 2011

= (crossplatform)