Should I switch from using boost::shared_ptr to std::shared_ptr?

Question

I would like to enable support for C++0x in GCC with -std=c++0x. I don\'t absolutely necessarily need any of the currently supported C++11 features in GCC 4.5 (

Answer 1

Aside from implementation consistency, boost::shared_ptr currently retains at least two niche advantages over std::shared_ptr:

• The availability of boost::make_shared_noinit. It's particularly useful in conjunction with arrays, avoiding both the cost of zero-initialization and the overhead of separate allocation. (FWIW, it's also a proposed addition to the standard.)
• Boost.Python makes special use of boost::shared_ptr's support for type-erased custom deleters, but doesn't yet do the same for std::shared_ptr.