Ray Logel wrote:
Is there any interest in pointer wrapper similar to scoped_ptr or shared_ptr which can be used for pointer member variable which can the referenced value can't be modified by non const functions? This class wouldn't be responsible for any memory management and could have a shared pointer version as well.
For example: template<typename T> class protected_ptr { T * ptr;
// ... T * get(); const T * get() const;
// ... including operator* and operator-> }
class Foo { protected_ptr<Bar> _bar;
void Func1() { _bar->NonConstFunc(); _bar->ConstFunc(); }
void Func2() const { _bar->NonConstFunc(); // Compile error _bar->ConstFunc(); // Ok } }
Ray Logel
The could be useful to propagate constness, however it looks like the boost smart pointers deliberately dont do that. The following is an excerpt from shared_ptr's faq (http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_38_0/libs/smart_ptr/shared_ptr.htm#functions): "A. Shallow copy pointers, including raw pointers, typically don't propagate constness. It makes little sense for them to do so, as you can always obtain a non-const pointer from a const one and then proceed to modify the object through it.shared_ptr is "as close to raw pointers as possible but no closer"." BR, Dmitry