Creating an easy to maintain copy constructor

Question

Consider the following class:

class A {

char *p;
int a, b, c, d;

public:
   A(const &A);
};

Note that I have to define a copy constructor

Answer 1

The question is, do you really need a pointer with deep-copy semantics in your class? In my experience, the answer almost always is no. Maybe you could explain your scenario, so we may show you alternative solutions.

That said, this article describes an implementation of a smart-pointer with deep-copy semantics.