On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 11:51 AM, Steinar Bang <s...@dod.no> wrote: >>>>>> "Hyrum K. Wright" <hyrum_wri...@mail.utexas.edu>: > >> 2) Return everything by pointer >> Pros: can represent the NULL value, potentially less memory overhead >> Cons: more complex memory management (caller must delete returned value) > > Um... why must the caller delete the returned value? I thought you were > using refcounting smartpointers?
Refcounting smartpointers are used to avoid duplication of the underlying C structures, but they are completely private. I've got serious reservations about exposing that complexity in the external object interfaces. Given those reservations, the API would just return a vanilla pointer, which leaves the caller the responsibility of freeing it. > Generally 1 gives a nicer API. But if you have any inheritance and > virtual methods going, then 2 is simplest. No inheritance or virtual stuff, as of yet, so not a concern. -Hyrum
