Is there a native/reliable alternative for boost::shared_ptr in VC++ ?

Question

My company doesn't allow the use of boost (for many stupid reasons, but that's off-topic).

I feel very frustrated having to use raw pointers when I'm used to shared_ptr, weak_ptr and scoped_ptr for personal development.

We're working exclusively with Microsoft compilers (Visual Studio 2010) and I wonder if there was an alternative to those templates that would decrease my pain.

I once heard of std::tr1 but I'm not sure what this is. I believe it is some kind of Microsoft implementation of the next standard but can we rely on it ? What does it provide ? Is there any guarantees ? What headers should be included ?

Answer 1

With VC10 just use the shared_ptr, weak_ptr and unique_ptr implementations it already provides. All you have to do is to include <memory>.

Answer 2

TR1 is short for Technical Report 1 and are recommendations to the standard committee for new features in the C++ standard. take a look at the header (or other headers that it includes). and if VS2010 implements TR1 there is a good chance you will have the tr1 smart pointers. These should be identical to the Boost smart pointers.