Object Deletion: use parent or not

Question

Which one do you prefer to delete objects? Especially in QT, but other practices are also welcome. These two alternatives seem same to me, are they?

1.Bound to another class, and destroy when it is destroyed.

SomeClass::SomeClass{
 socket_ = new QTcpSocket(this);
}

or

2.Destroy in the destructor of class

SomeClass::SomeClass{
 socket_ = new QTcpSocket();
}

SomeClass::~SomeClass{
 delete socket_;
}

Answer 1

RAII says you should do it in the destructor of SomeClass. According to that philosophy, the SomeClass instance owns the QTcpSocket instance, so the former should fully manage the lifetime of the latter. Though both approaches are valid, I think I would prefer the one that doesn't require me to delete this.

Answer 2

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. If your framework uses one method (for example Qt relies on parent-child relationship), use this method in your code.

Of course don't forget about general good memory management practices: create object on stack whenever it's possible, use shared pointers, etc.

Answer 3

For me, I think that it's better select the short way to write code (1), but with best-practice in mind, because Qt do it (destroy user defined variables) for you.