On Wed, 27 Apr 2011 11:08:23 -0400, Alexander <[email protected]> wrote:
On 27.04.2011 16:48, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
basically, dispose cleans up resources *knowing* that all its
references are still valid.
Right, but cleaning of resources doesn't mean that object will be
destructed - it can be reused afterwards (connection reestablished, file
reopened etc).
I don't think reuse is a requirement of dispose. It might be that those
resources are only allocated on construction, which would require you to
re-construct the object. I think the only difference between the
destructor (finalizer) and dispose is that dispose is guaranteed that all
the memory is still allocated, whereas the finalizer is not given that
guarantee.
The deallocation of object memory is a separate thing (outside dispose
or the destructor).
That's why I think that clear() is bad name choice, when it leads to
destruction :)
The name choice is no longer up for debate. It's already set in print,
and in the language.
-Steve
