Navigating C++ and Object-Oriented Design

Chapter 8. Object Storage Management

Controlling the allocation and deallocation of dynamic memory is important with many objects. Systems that allocate and deallocate large numbers of small objects, for example, may require a global “garbage collector” that reorganizes fragmented memory transparently to applications. Library designers, on the other hand, may want to ensure that only objects of a particular class reside in a class-specific memory pool (a buffering scheme that improves free store throughput for specific objects). This chapter demonstrates how to customize object storage management by overloading and/or overriding global and class specific versions of operator new and operator delete. We also show you why reference counts make ...