Thread: Smart pointers as class members, to make copying more efficient

I'm just breaking into the use of Boost smart pointers for the purpose of making the copying of objects more efficient. Is this possible?
Usually when one makes a copy constructor and assignment operator, they look something like this:

Code:

class aclass {
   aclass(const aclass &other) {
        really_expensive_copy_procedure(other);
   }
   aclass &operator=(const aclass &other) {
        really_expensive_copy_procedure(other);
        return *this;
   }

But say you have "shared" smart pointers for your class members? Is it possible to just pass those around, thereby bypassing those expensive copy procedures? How would I set up my class that way? Yes, I am aware that if any instance of aclass writes to what the smart pointers contained, then all instances will change. The classes I want to write will treat these contained instances as read-only after they are created.

The reason I want to do this is I'd like to hide the use of smart pointers from the owners of aclass, thereby making it abstract. That why I'd have members like:

Code:

class aclass {
    aclass foo();
    aclass goo(const aclass &aclass_);
...
};
...
aclass a_class, anotherclass;
aclass yetanotherclass = a_class.foo();
anotherclass.goo(yetanotherclass);

You get the idea