From: Peter Dimov [mailto:pdimov@mmltd.net]

From: "Hickman, Greg"

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From: Peter Dimov [mailto:pdimov@mmltd.net] If 'f' is virtual, have the object store a weak_ptr to itself:

class X { private:

weak_ptr<X> weak_this;

X(); X(X const &); X& operator=(X const &);

public:

static shared_ptr<X> create() { shared_ptr<X> px(new X); px->weak_this = px; return px; }

I must be missing something here, because it appears as though you can't derive a Y from X and still initialize X::weak_this.

You could simply make X::weak_this and X::X() protected... although if you follow the design rule that says that non-leaf classes should be abstract (and if possible contain no data) this shouldn't be necessary, as X as pictured above would be a leaf.

Its seems the leaf itself must implement the factory method/weak_this idiom. This initially didn't seem like a good idea in our case since clients write the leaves - we only provide X. But on second thought, perhaps two alternatives are (1) provide a helper template for clients to use when deriving from X to automatically declare the static create()/weak_this pair, or (2) use an intrusive reference counting approach for X. If an intrusive approach ultimately works better for us, what should I do as a boost 1.29.0 user: use counted_base/shared_from_this, or intrusive_ptr (which I admittedly haven't even looked at)? Any suggestions you have are more than welcome. -Greg