I'm a simple fellow and get confused about who is responsible for deleting a raw buffer, is it me, the library, should it be free or delete? Maybe I get a pointer the buffer and I must free it. May I get the pointer to the buffer and I should do nothing... When I create the buffer and send it to the library, the lib will delete, so I shouldn't but should I malloc or new the thing? Any way, to kill annoying mozzie with a hammer I wrote a little policy buffer, perhaps others might find this useful and it might make its way into a utility section somewhere in boost. I also had a goal of the potential for binary compatibility with a struct buffer { size t size; char * data; } as per WSABUF on win32, and many other standardish buffers, which limited the choices a little. hpp attached. Test that passes on vc7.1 below: Seem trivial enough but there are plenty of colours on the bike shed that might be wrong ;-) Comments? If it is desirable I can write a one page doc and put it in the queue for a mini-review. Matt Hurd. __________________________________________ void data_test() { net::data_standard b(6, "Hello"); CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( b[0], 'H'); CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( b[1], 'e'); CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( b[2], 'l'); CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( b[3], 'l'); CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( b[4], 'o'); CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( *b.begin(), 'H'); net::data_standard::iterator i = b.begin(); CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( *i, 'H'); CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( *(i+4), 'o'); ++i; CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( *i, 'e'); i++; CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( *i, 'l'); --i; CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( *i, 'e'); i = b.end(); i = i - 3; CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( *i, 'l'); i = b.begin(); *i = 'h'; CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( b[0], 'h'); b[1] = 'u'; CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( std::string( b ), std::string("hullo") ); std::string c = b; CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( c, std::string("hullo") ); net::data_standard::const_iterator ci = b.begin(); CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( *ci, 'h'); ci = b.end(); ci = ci - 3; CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL( *ci, 'l'); CPPUNIT_ASSERT( b.end() - b.begin() == 6); // malloc / free example where one side creates and the other destroys net::data<4096, net::create_malloc, net::kill_nothing > source; std::string bye = "Goodbye"; source.overwrite(bye.length() + 1 , bye.c_str()); net::data<4096, net::create_refer, net::kill_free > dest( source.size() , source.begin() ); std::string bye_bye = dest; CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL(bye, bye_bye); } ______________ 2004-Mar-25 Thu 15:43:55 | net.data | TRACE | 2984 | Data<4096> constructed for char with 6 incoming | d:\finray\simple_server\data.hpp:158 2004-Mar-25 Thu 15:43:55 | net.data | TRACE | 2984 | Empty data<4096> constructed for char | d:\finray\simple_server\data.hpp:145 2004-Mar-25 Thu 15:43:55 | net.data | TRACE | 2984 | Data<4096> constructed for char with 8 incoming | d:\finray\simple_server\data.hpp:158 2004-Mar-25 Thu 15:43:55 | net.data | TRACE | 2984 | Data<4096> for char has the fat lady singing | d:\finray\simple_server\data.hpp:165 2004-Mar-25 Thu 15:43:55 | net.data | TRACE | 2984 | Data<4096> for char has the fat lady singing | d:\finray\simple_server\data.hpp:165 2004-Mar-25 Thu 15:43:55 | net.data | TRACE | 2984 | Data<4096> for char has the fat lady singing | d:\finray\simple_server\data.hpp:165 OK (1)