I honestly wonder how much cleaner this stupid scenegraph would be if I could just use a proper garbage collected language. Unfortunately, I don't have that choice right now. Even a bolt-on GC for C++ is really more than we can afford to try and integrate right now.
I think if it weren't for boost::shared_ptr I'd have jumped out of my window by now.
Of course, that wouldn't have done a whole lot, seeing as I live on the ground floor and all. But the symbolic act of hopelessness and despair would have been awe inspiring.
So anyways, at the moment I'm working out all the gritty details of who exactly "owns" scenegraph nodes, who creates/destroys them, and all that such stuff. Once I get it all figured out, I'll do my RWGD post and talk about the results, as well as the cameras-aren't-scenegraph-nodes thing.
Assuming, of course, that anyone in the world actually gives a flying lemur kidney about any of it [grin]