Re: Beginner with Cocoa

FROM : Erik Buck
DATE : Mon Mar 24 15:13:48 2008

> You'll probably have to learn the old way, "retain and release,"
> which is unique to Objective-C.


For the record, reference counting for memory management is one of the 
oldest techniques in software and is not unique to Objective-C or 
Cocoa.  Microsoft Foundation Class CString uses it.  COM/Active-X 
IUnknown uses it.  It's essential to using DirectX.  It's essential to 
using embedded controls.

The C++ Boost library provides "smart" pointers that are reference 
counted.  Many Unix like operating systems use reference counted 
resources including file descriptors, semaphores, I/O buffers, and 
shared memory regions.

Different people learn different skills and mindsets in different 
orders, but let's be realistic - if reference counted memory 
management is too difficult for people to use, the people probably 
shouldn't call themselves programmers.  That doesn't mean reference 
counting has to be the first thing a newbie learns, but refusing to 
learn it begs the question - what other basic programming techniques 
are being skipped ?