Garbage collection - was Beginner with Cocoa

FROM : Bill Cheeseman
DATE : Mon Mar 24 15:57:34 2008

on 2008-03-24 10:32 AM, Scott Thompson at <email_removed> wrote:

> Over time, there will be more code able to take advantage of the
> Garbage Collector, but I think it will be some time before it's
> ubiquitous enough to remove the retain/release memory management
> scheme from the literature.


Let me be one of the first to say that the Emperor has no clothes.

What I mean is, for those of us who are already fully comfortable with
reference counting, it's easier than learning the nuances and limitations of
garbage collection. Frankly, reading the garbage collection docs scares me
to death because of all the nooks and crannies where you apparently have to
be careful, while I can code retain/release with my eyes shut. I'm sure I'll
eventually get comfortable with garbage collection, but I do hope that
reference counting doesn't go away.

I've written a Cocoa framework that is intended to be usable with both
retain/release and garbage collection (and 32-bit and 64-bit). But I don't
know whether I did it right, and I have no idea how to go about finding out.

--

Bill Cheeseman - <email_removed>
Quechee Software, Quechee, Vermont, USA
www.quecheesoftware.com

PreFab Software - www.prefabsoftware.com