Is there any interest in a vector like container which is designed to make
working with raw memory easy. It is different from a vector<char> (with
the additional assumption that the objects are stored in memory
sequentially) is the following ways:
The integrator is defined to be a pointer to make working with functions
that use raw memory easy.
It can use a specific range of user supplied memory for its storage.
When using user memory it will never attempt to allocate more memory.
capacity() == max_size().
Any function which takes a range:
(const_iterator start, const_iterator stop)
can also take a void pointer and a size ie:
(const void * data, size_type size)
Any function which takes an iterator to represent a position within
the exiting object can also take an offset. If two iterators are
used to represent a range than an offset and a size can also be used.
Like vector, push_back(), and pop_back() or constant time operations if
storage is available. However, unlike vector, pop_front() is a
constant time operation and push_front() can be made to be constant
time operations.
support for replacing one range with another while moving the minimal
amount of memory possible:
replace(iterator start, iterator_stop,
const_iterator rstart, const_iterator rstop)
A special member function
template <typename U> U * datap(size_type pos = 0)
which allows treating the memory as another type without an ugly
reinterpret_cast. This statement is equivalent to
reinterpret_cast<U *>(...) + pos
My implementation is not a template. It uses new[] and delete[] for memory
allocation and the data type is "unsigned char". Since the main goal for
this class was working with raw memory and not an array of objects I
decided not to make it a template.
Some of the features of Buffer might be useful for a more general purpose
vector, such as the replace method and the ability to use user memory.
If people are really interested I will post my code.
I wrote it to make working with Berkeley database and sending network
messages as painless as possible.
Let me know.
---
http://kevin.atkinson.dhs.org
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