Memory management system.

These classes provide a thread safe reference counting mechanism used in most of the classes in RAVL. Note: to keep the implementation simple and efficient we don't do any kind of garbage collection, so if you create a loop of references the objects in question will NOT be destroyed automatically. The two common ways of getting around this problem are to either use a container class like GraphC which can cope with loops of references or to make a parent class for the structure which manages the destruction of the object ensuring all the loops are broken when they are no longer needed.

For an example of how to write a simple reference counted class see exRefCounter.cc. If you want to create a class hierarchy with inheritance, exRefCounterInherit.cc shows how.

For more information on how to use reference counted classes see Ravl.Introduction.Reference Counting

Normal classes:

RCHandleC	Base class for handles to reference counter objects
RCBodyC	Base class for all reference counted objects
RCAbstractC	Abstract handle class for any object derived from RCBodyVC.
RCHandleVC	Handle from objects derived from RCBodyVC.
RCBodyVC	Base class for all reference counted objects, where derivation is expected.

Normal functions:

operator <<(ostream &,const RCHandleC &)
operator >>(istream &,RCHandleC &)	Base class for all reference counted objects
operator >>(istream &,RCBodyC &)	Input body.
operator <<(ostream &,const RCBodyC &)	Output body.
operator >>(istream &,RCHandleVC &)
operator >>(BinIStreamC &,RCHandleVC &)	Base class for all reference counted objects, where derivation is expected.
operator >>(istream &,RCBodyVC &)	Input virtual body.
VCLoad(istream &)	Load object from a stream via a virtual constructor
VCLoad(BinIStreamC &)	Load object from a binary stream via a virtual constructor
VCLoad(istream &,BodyT *)
VCLoad(BinIStreamC &,BodyT *)
operator <<(ostream &,const RCHandleVC &)	Write a handle to a stream.
operator <<(BinOStreamC &,const RCHandleVC &)	Write binary handle to a stream.

Advanced classes:

SmartPtrC	Smart pointer.
HandleRefCounterC	Handle based reference counter.
HandleRefCounterBodyC	Handle based reference counter.
RCWrapAbstractC	Abstract wrapped object handle.
RCWrapC	RCWrapper handle.

Advanced functions:

operator <<(ostream &,const RCWrapC &)	ostream operator.
operator >>(istream &,RCWrapC &)	istream operator.