Re: [boost] [shared_array] Why not in C++11 ?

Andrey Semashev and Robert Stewart wrote:

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The buffer object no longer behaves like a regular shared_ptr<>, but behaves very much like an array, and for all intents and purposes, it is an array, it is a buffer! What I mean is, it is not a pointer anymore, and you can no longer do this:

buffer-> ???? // what can the pointer operator be used for ????

The operator-> would work like with any raw pointer - it would return a pointer to the first element of the array.

His point is that, without at least knowing the capacity, code called with a shared_ptr cannot use it because the extent is > unknown.

You mean that the pointer may refer to a zero-sized array? Yes, that is UB, just as well as with the raw pointers.

What I mean is, operator->() does not exist. How can it be a pointer when it is not possible to use pointer notation? shared_ptr< char[] > buffer; buffer-> // pointer operation does not exist buffer[ n ] = m; // array indexing does exist Since you can't use pointer notation, it is not a pointer. These objects are arrays, plain and simple. -Sid Sacek