dolfin team mailing list archive

[Anders Logg <logg@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Oct 23, 2006 at 02:57:27PM +0200, Garth N. Wells wrote:
> What does everyone think about using some of the smart pointers from
> Boost? Instead of
> 
>   int* nodes = new int[element.spacedim()];
>   element.nodemap(nodes, *cell, mesh);
>   /*
>      Do something
>   */
>    delete [] nodes;
> 
> we would have
> 
>   boost::scoped_array<int> nodes( new int[element.spacedim()] );
>   element.nodemap(nodes.get(), *cell, mesh);
>   /*
>      Do something
>   */
> 
> In the end, it's pretty similar to std::vector, except it's a bit more
> efficient since it's not designed to change size and we can access the
> underlying pointer with get().
> 
> Garth

To me, it looks like code obfuscation. If you compare the two ways of
writing, you remove

  "int*", "delete [] nodes"

and add

  "boost::scoped_array<int>", ".get()", ".get()" (get in two places here)

There are probably places where we could make good use of smart
pointers, but here it looks to me like it just adds complexity.

/Anders