Reference counting
agree at carltonfields.com
agree at carltonfields.com
Tue Oct 26 17:45:12 UTC 1999
> On Tue, 26 Oct 1999 11:11:57 -0400 agree at carltonfields.com wrote:
> >I would appreciate an explanation of their utility. I'm > sure I'm simply being dull, but I don't understand why this > would be necessary or helpful.
> > Think of it as a virtual-memory substitute: > recently/frequently used objects would tend to stay in memory > and would only get purged when space was running low. The > current garbage collection purges objects as soon as they are > no longer referenced, without regard to the cost of > recreating them or the possibility that they will be needed soon.
Is that right? I was under the impression that the object isn't purged until the gc occurs. [Indeed, what is described is something more like reference counting than gc]. Further, can't you register objects for finalization, thus giving each object a chance to say "I want to stay?" or to copy itself somewhere -- or would that action be beyond the scope of a valid finalization action?
Sorry if I'm still being dull.
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