[chuck-users] Destroying object instances ... unchuck?

[Bradford Garton]

Hey Ge --

When you guys are doing the GC implementation, could you also put in the 
ability to disable it by the user?  I can imagine there are times when 
having a big GC kick in wouldn't be a good thing to do.

brad
http://music.columbia.edu/~brad


On Mon, 29 Jan 2007, Ge Wang wrote:

>> Is there a way to explicitly destroy object references?
>
> Currently, ChucK is undergoing much development in terms of garbage
> collection.  In the released version, objects are ref counted, but
> not all references are released correctly yet.  This means either
> structuring code to minimize garbage, or "manually" releasing
> references, in order to control memory usage for now.
>
> Someday soonish, ChucK is going to be a (hopefully properly) garbage
> collected language, which means the programmer will not have to
> manually release objects after use.
>
>> For instance, in a loop, I am creating an array of objects like so:
>>
>> Object objects[4];
>> 0 => int count;
>>
>> for(0 => int i; i < 4; i++ )
>> {
>>   new Object @=> objects[count];
>>   count++;
>> }
>>
>> Now how would I delete the Object referenced at, say, objects[0]?
>
> In this particular case, by assigning new instances of Object into
> objects[0], the old objects should have been released automatically.
> You can also assign 'null' to object references to decrement their
> ref counts, and if no other references exist to that object, it will
> be released.
>
> Also, as you probably know, one can declare arrays of null
> references, to reduce redundant/useless instantiations:
>
> // array of null Object references
> Object @ objects[4];
>
> We are still experimenting with various options for garbage
> collecting ChucK, and will likely adopt two or three approaches for
> initial release/testing, selectable by the programmer.  In any case,
> we don't expect any syntax-alterations to the language.  We will
> continue to keep you posted.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Best,
> Ge!
>
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