Re: smart pointer patterns

From:
red floyd <no.spam@here.dude>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:10:02 -0700
Message-ID:
<HCcli.26513$C96.19328@newssvr23.news.prodigy.net>
corophoria@gmail.com wrote:

Some people I interact with, especially those with a c background,
have an aversion to scoped_ptrs because they see a new(), but they
don't see a corresponding delete(), and they get very scared

 e.g. usage

Class Bar
{
  int m_data;
};

void Foo()
{
  scoped_ptr<Bar> bar( new Bar() );
  process( bar );
}

In the default constructor case, we can make a wrapper around
scoped_ptr like:

template <typename T>
class ScopedWrapper
{
public:
   ScopedWrapper<T>
       : m_ptr( new T() )
    {
    }
private:
     scoped_ptr<T> m_ptr;
};

then, for the previous function, we can equivalenty write:

void Foo()
{
  ScopedWrapper<Bar> bar;
  process( bar );
}
Now, people don't have to see the new call, and it's a bit easier for
them to read,

Now, let's say Bar has some arbitrary constructor with signature like:

Bar::Bar(int, double, std::string );

now, to instantiate a Bar using a scoped_ptr i would traditionally do

scoped_ptr<Bar> bar( new Bar(3, 2, "fool") );

Now, what I would like to be able to do is write something like

ScopedWrapper<Bar> bar(3,2,"fool"); or something like that...

I am not sure that really explained what I want. I would like to put
arbitrary objects with arbitrary constructors on the heap rather than
on the stack, without any new/delete's but have some kind of auto
ownership mechanisms?

Sorry if this question has been answered before, or if the C++ syntax
is wrong.


What's wrong with specializing ScopedWrapper?

template<>
class ScopedWrapper<Bar> {
    ScopedWrapper() : m_ptr(new Bar()) { }
    ScopedWrapper(int x, int y, const std::string& z)
        : m_ptr(new Bar(x, y, z) { }
};

Alternatively, you might try to use (multiple) templated constructors if
you don't want to do too many specializations.

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