Improve alignment of its behaviour with std::unique_ptr
- element_type typedef
- release() method - identical to ptr() method
- get() method to get the pointer without checking and without releasing it.
- operator*() for dereferencing
Method name changes
- renamed rawPtr() to get()
- renamed rawRef() to ref(), removed unused const version.
Removed methods/operators
- assignment from a raw pointer was deleted (was rarely used).
Can be convenient, but uncontrolled and potentially unsafe.
Do allow assignment from a literal nullptr though, since this
can never leak (and also corresponds to the unique_ptr API).
Additional methods
- clone() method: forwards to the clone() method of the underlying
data object with argument forwarding.
- reset(autoPtr&&) as an alternative to operator=(autoPtr&&)
STYLE: avoid implicit conversion from autoPtr to object type in many places
- existing implementation has the following:
operator const T&() const { return operator*(); }
which means that the following code works:
autoPtr<mapPolyMesh> map = ...;
updateMesh(*map); // OK: explicit dereferencing
updateMesh(map()); // OK: explicit dereferencing
updateMesh(map); // OK: implicit dereferencing
for clarity it may preferable to avoid the implicit dereferencing
- prefer operator* to operator() when deferenced a return value
so it is clearer that a pointer is involve and not a function call
etc Eg, return *meshPtr_; vs. return meshPtr_();
- problems when the cloud was not available on all processors.
- NB: ensight measured data only allows a single cloud, but
foamToEnsight writes all clouds.
- with the xml append format it is possible to write raw binary
(instead of base64), but the writer becomes more complicated.
Either needs two passes to create, or need to allocate a block
of space for the header information (like VTK itself does) and
write later.
* internalWriter
* patchWriter
* surfaceMeshWriter
* lagrangianWriter
Also these special purpose ones:
* foamVtkWriteSurfFields
- this shifts responsibility away from caller to the individual writers
for knowing which file formats are supported and which file ending is
appropriate. When the writer receives the output format request,
it can elect to downgrade or otherwise adjust it to what it can
actually manage (eg, legacy vs xml vs xml-append).
But currently still just with legacy format backends.
