I need a pointer container that takes ownership of the pointers - i.e. when an element is removed, or the container goes out of scope, it frees all its pointers, like in boost::ptr_vector.
QList<QScopedPointer<AbstractClass> > doesn't work (compile errors, no copy constructor?).
Right now I'm using QList<QSharedPointer<AbstractClass> >, but it feels like an overkill, with its reference counting and the expensive mutex for multithreading.
Edit: I just learned about QPtrList (thanks @ForEveR) which was that very equivalent in Qt3, but was removed from later versions. I just don't understand why they would remove it.
You are right that QSharedPointer is a bit of overhead for said reasons.
Unfortunately, there is not such a pointer vector in Qt and it is also a bit questionable whether it is worth adding when the language evolves and we have got good primitives in place to do similar jobs.
I have just had a quick discussion with one of the Qt core developers and it seems to be that the recommended solution for today is either QSharedPointer or this from C++11:
std::vector<std::unique_ptr<AbstractClass>>
Do not get attempted using QVector instead of std::vector as QVector may want to do copies.
Do not get attempted by this solution either, even in C++11:
QList<QScopedPointer<AbstractClass>>
The problem here is that QList wants to do copies. When using any non-const method, detach will be called which makes copies and that will not compiler.
Also, QScopedPointer does not have move constructors or operators and that is by design.