Most stl classes will work just fine with smart pointers. For example, std::vector takes a custom allocator. You can have the allocators pointer type be a custo

Most stl classes will work just fine with smart pointers. For example, std::vector takes a custom allocator. You can have the allocators pointer type be a custom pointer class. The pointer class is a wrapper over an offset that is the same size as the native word. Then the operator-> is just (this + offset). I've used this approach successfully in many projects. If you're worried about differing stls(probably a reasonable worry here), then use any of the boost containers.