I am continuing work on a futures library for boost. future objects (as currently considered by the C++ standards committee, in particular Peter Dimov's proposal) have reference semantics, like many pimpl types. I have some burning questions about const correctness. Hypothetical reference-semantic example: future f1; future f2 = f1; //f2 refers to the same underlying object as f1 f2.set(42); //do something assert(f1.get() == 42); // see, same underlying object This is roughly equivalent to: boost::shared_ptr f1; boost::shared_ptr f2 = f1; A std::vector<T>::iterator is an example of another type with reference semantics. So, say I have a simple future class: class future_impl { public: bool get() const {return value_;} void set(bool value) {value_ = value;} private: bool value_; }; class future { //not really a future, just example public: future() : impl_(new future_impl) {} future(const future &other) : impl_(other.impl_) {} bool get() const {return impl_->get();} // Set may not be const, but it does NOT really modify this class void set(bool value) {impl_->set(value);} private: boost::shared_ptr impl_; }; I have made the future::set() method non-const, but it does NOT really modify the underlying future class, only the future_impl class it refers to. This makes life very difficult when it comes to passing futures by reference: // alternative #1 - pass const future & void f1(const future &f) { bool v = f.get(); // no problem, get() is const f.set(!v); // cannot do this, set() is not const // BUT I can bypass the const-ness trivially, so it is pointless future f2(f); f2.set(!v); } // alternative #2 - pass future & // with #2, I can't do simple things like this: // f2(future(f)); //ERROR: non-const reference from a temporary - irritating void f2(future &f) { bool v = f.get(); // no problem, get() is const f.set(!v); } // alternative #3 - pass by value // Constructing shared_ptr's is VERY inefficient void f3(future f) { bool v = f.get(); // no problem, get() is const f.set(!v); // cannot do this, set() is not const } // alternative #4 - const_future base class with the subset of const methods? // kinda like a const_iterator? seems klunky. class const_future {bool get() const;}; class future : public const_future {void set(bool);} Does anyone have any advice or ideas? Oh, and then there is a possible need for something like a weak_ptr, like a weak_future class? And then a const_weak_future? I don't want to think about it... Thanks, Braddock Gaskill