Simply small change, curious as to what others think: I'll illustrate with a trivial example: struct foo { virtual ~foo() { } }; struct bar : foo { }; typedef shared_ptr<foo> fooptr; typedef shared_ptr<bar> barptr; void some_func(weak_ptr<foo> wf) { barptr pb = wf.lock<bar>(); } // currently the way to do this is (as I am sure everyone knows) void some_func(weak_ptr<foo> wf) { barptr pb = dynamic_pointer_cast<bar>(wf.lock()); } My suggestion seems easier to read. Would require no additional overhead and would preserve existing behavior. I suppose you could provide a static and dynamic version: lock_static<bar> and lock_dynamic<bar> Any thoughts? Or is the general concensus that ideas like this are something indivudual people should do in their own source? Jeff