TITLE: destructors for built-in types PROBLEM: Herb Sutter Yes, but not bald pointers. (BTW, this is more a language question, so I'm crossposting to comp.lang.c++; followups probably should continue there.) defalloc.h's destroy() is templated , takes a T* pointer, and invokes pointer->~T() -- and of course passing it a base** fails because that's not a pointer to a structure. RESPONSE: maxtal@Physics.usyd.edu.au (John Max Skaller), 30 Jun 95 pointer->~T() is guarranteed to work for ALL types. A change from the ARM. EG: typedef char *charp; char ch; (&ch)->~charp(); This is well defined --it destroys the char "ch" (which is usually a nop).