Hello Boosters, haven't found whether or not this was proposed before, so here we go: What about adding an operator[] to shared_ptr: [...] #include <cstddef> // for std::size_t [...] // e.g. below operator* reference operator[] (std::size_t index) const // never throws { BOOST_ASSERT(px != 0); return px[index]; } [...] This makes it easier to wrap memory from system calls: Before: char** sym = ::backtrace_symbols(addr,n); // Lots of code here sym[0]; // access sym by index ::free(sym); // could be forgotten, code in between could throw, ... After: shared_ptr< char* > p( ::backtrace_symbols(addr,n), &::free ); // Lots of code here, allowed to throw now :) sym[0]; // still access by index, no funny syntax needed // no need to call ::free explicitly :) Hope you get the idea :) What do you think? Any problem with adding operator[] to make it more similar to a plain old C-pointer (while still being safe AFAICT)? Regards, Daniel