STL like Vector,Pair, Map

[Tim Keating]

Bill Baxter Wrote:

> > Why?
> 
> STL containers act like value types.
> 
> std::vector<int> a,b;
> ...// put some stuff in vector a
> b = a;  // now b has a copy of every element of a
> a[4] = 9;  //b[4] unchanged
> 
> 
> In D currently to get that behavior have to do .dup:
> int[] a,b;
> b = a.dup;

But . . . the reason the STL uses value types is to minimize the complexity inherent in determining who owns objects passed by reference. Doesn't that problem just _go away_ in a garbage-collected language?

Could you not build an interface-compatible set of STL containers that use reference semantics instead? Admittedly, that's a big caveat for porting, but I wonder how much code you would actually have to change . . . 

TK