On 2/1/14, 6:59 PM, Frank Bauer wrote:
Just to clarify: I would like to have the following pointers. I'll start
with the GC ones to maybe reach some consensus quicker ;)
1. GC(T)
Pointer to a heap allocated T, garbage collected.
2. ARC(T)
Reference counted pointer to a heap allocated T, compiler manages
lifetime automatically via retain/ release.
3. Owning(T)
Pointer to a heap allocated T, freed when pointer goes out of scope or
is reassigned (some special interactions with Borrowed(T) on top of that).
4. Borrowed(T)
Pointer to a T, not necessarily heap allocated, has no impact on memory
allocation/ deallocation of the T whatsoever, if assigned from an
Owning(T) prevents that owning pointer from being freed or reassigned as
long as the borrowed pointer is in scope.
Performance, or, should I say, meddling of the compiler and runtime in
your code, is from worst to best.
We could argue over which pointer concepts would be granted the honor of
receiving their own D definition syntax (new, ~, @, &, whatever).
Whoa, this won't work without an explosion in language complexity.
Andrei
