178180 - |nsCOMPtr|: is it time to remove the |address_of| hack?

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 132278

(Core :: XPCOM, enhancement)

Description

[Scott Collins]

|nsCOMPtr| has extra machinery, the intent of which was to discourage clients
from applying old-style casts to |nsCOMPtr|s, and/or pass them by address. 
Maybe this machinery has outlived its usefulness, and it's time to simplify.  If
we remove this machinery, will transgressions be caught in review?  Did this
machinery ever really discourage the kind of misuse it targeted?

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

It certainly made users of address_of very obvious and people have been slowly
eliminating them as a result....

Comment 2

[David Baron :dbaron: (⌚️UTC-4, no longer working on Mozilla)]

I thought we already removed the private operator&.

Comment 3

[David Bradley]

I found several instances in the plugin code that use operator & on an nsCOMPtr.

So I think the answers to "Will the transgressions be caught in review" is no.

http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/embedding/browser/activex/src/plugin/XPConnect.cpp#761

And yes, if there was a private operator &, it was removed.

Comment 4

[David Bradley]

FYI, filed bug 189296 for the plugin code

Comment 5

[David Bradley]

Marking this a dupe of bug 132278

I came across the original bug that dealt with this. And read the explanation
for removing it, so sounds like a good idea. Also the plugin code looks to be
the only code that abuses taking an address of an nsCOMPtr.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 132278 ***