There's nothing complicated? You have to 1) #include <memory> 2) Write "std::unique_ptr<My_Foo_Type> foo" instead of just "My_Foo_Type *foo" in every definition. 3) Are required to define My_Foo_Type as a class with a separate deleter, or provide a deleter template argument at each declaration. 4a) write "foo.get()" in various places instead of just "foo". or 4b) lend around the unique_ptr in various places, breaking modularization and increasing build times. 5) Be stuck with a non-POD type that you can't just memcpy() around. 6) enjoy the worse runtime because your program has just been artifically compartmentalized even more!

Sometimes you C++ guys are just blinded by the tale of "zero-cost abstractions".

unique_ptr, like the idea of RAII in general, binds together what should be separate. Data schemas and physical layout on the one hand, and memory and lifetime management on the other hand. What you get as a result is what you deserve: The idea of "more safe and maintainable" where the "more" isn't added to the equivalent non-RAII program. No, it is added to the more convoluted, less understandable, and thus inherently less safe and maintainable program. Who knows what the bottom line is (in my experience often safety is a bit better but I pray for you if you need to debug a problem, and maintainability is much worse), but out of interest in my own sanity I know my preference.

I really don’t see what the big deal is? Generally the only time you should be returning or passing around a unique_ptr is when you’re actually transferring ownership of the referenced object. Otherwise just dereference it and pass around a reference to the underlying object.

> Data schemas and physical layout on the one hand, and memory and lifetime management on the other hand

How are they separate? Like, that’s what Rust does pretty explicitly, with great results.

I'm not following, what is Rust doing exactly? Coupling schema / layout with lifetime management? If that's what you mean I would like to disagree about the "great results" because of a gut feeling, and possibly the disagreement could in theory be justified with build times, or viewpoints on maintainability or whatever. But unfortunately I have no basis for doing so. I don't understand Rust well. And have very little experience, expect failing at compiling some projects and their 500 dependencies a couple times...