Hi all, Sorry if this has been discussed yet, but I think there is an obvious pattern in the usage of intrusive_ptr which should be exposed as common functionality in boost. In most of the cases you just want to handle a simple reference count and delete the object which is held by the intrusive_ptr when the reference count is decreased to zero. It's very annoying that you currently have to write external add_ref/release functions for every class you want to use with this smart pointer. Additionaly, it makes the code unreadable. That's why I would like to suggest having a base class which provides the simplest functionality a user could expect from intrusive_ptr: handling the reference count and deleting the object. A class which should be maintained by intrusive_ptr can derive from it and would not have to provide any further interfaces. I'm not glad about the class name 'intrusive_ptr_base' but I don't have any good ideas at the moment :( Awaiting you comments! (code: see below) Stefan namespace boost { class intrusive_ptr_base; void intrusive_ptr_add_ref(intrusive_ptr_base*); void intrusive_ptr_release(intrusive_ptr_base*); class intrusive_ptr_base { friend void intrusive_ptr_add_ref(intrusive_ptr_base*); friend void intrusive_ptr_release(intrusive_ptr_base*); int ref_count__; protected: intrusive_ptr_base() : ref_count__(0) {} virtual ~intrusive_ptr_base() {} }; inline void intrusive_ptr_add_ref(intrusive_ptr_base* o) { ++o->ref_count__; } inline void intrusive_ptr_release(intrusive_ptr_base* o) { if (--o->ref_count__ == 0) { delete o; } } } // namespace