Re: [boost] [ValueRef] Interest in a new library for immutable values with internal sharing?

Message: 2 Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2015 15:40:37 +0100 From: Sam Kellett

To:boost@lists.boost.org Subject: Re: [boost] [ValueRef] Interest in a new library for immutable values with internal sharing? Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

I had a similar idea for a new smart pointer that would aim to obsolete the shared_ptr-to-const idiom. The problem I found with that idiom is that it only guarantees that you can't change it. There's no promise that somebody else doesn't have a non-const ref to the data and so it could in the worst case completely change from under your feet (even if you know it won't get destroyed).

ValueRef doesn't expose (shared) pointers/pointees, they are a hidden, implementation detail. Its interface just deals in values (as shown in the example usage).