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Asked: 2026-06-14T03:27:52+00:00

So, I’d like to use smart pointers instead of raw and almost every topic

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So, I’d like to use smart pointers instead of raw and almost every topic on SO says about Boost library. But std has such things as std::auto_ptr and std::shared_ptr.
Why Boost? What is the difference?

It was a question not about difference of the implementation, but about reasons to use Boost pointers. I suppose, given answer, including date of answering and context, is reasonably useful. It helps to understand how Boost pointers were added to std.

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  1. Editorial Team

    Basically Boost did shared_ptr first. You may note that many of the new container classes in C++11 were in Boost long ago. I would expect this pattern to continue with the next revisions of the C++ standard, too. Boost supports older C++ compilers that don’t talk C++11, which is a big benefit.

    Incidentally, std::auto_ptr is deprecated in C++11, which brings in std::shared_ptr and std::unique_ptr instead, which are both significantly more useful.

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