From: Jim Hyslop [mailto:jim.hyslop@leitch.com]

I notice that the implementation available at boost.org does not allow the single-argument ctor to be called on an incomplete type, e.g.: [snip] The documentation on the single-argument ctor, though, does not state that T must be a complete type. Is the implementation stricter than the documentation, or is the documentation incomplete?

I believe that the implementation is correct, and that belief is confirmed by the latest documentation in the CVS - T must indeed be a complete type. Another change is the addition of a default constructor, which does not require T to be complete.

I'm writing an article on the smart pointers for the CUJ, and I'd like

Cool! ;-)

to know if I can correctly state "The default behavior for shared_ptr is to require complete types. You can, however, manage an incomplete type if you provide a function or function object, which will be called when the owned object is destroyed."

Since shared_ptr requires a complete type only for a few operations, such as the constructor that you mentioned, and reset(T * p), I'd rephrase to something more explicit, like: "The instantiation of a shared_ptr typically requires a complete type. [etc]". Bjorn Karlsson [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]