how about `someObject = null;`
rather than delete someObject; ? free'ing' an object is like dealing with GC ... I think you would rather stay away from it and track references, and free them, as much as you can :) On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 4:16 PM, Isaac Schlueter <[email protected]> wrote: > It'd be really nice if JS had a way to explicitly delete an object. > > Occasionally, in complex programs, you can find yourself with a > situation where a certain type of object is leaking. However, even if > you track down what the object is, and find the exact point in your > program where you ought to have no references to it, it's not always > obvious to know what might be holding a reference still. It's > tempting to do this, and newcomers often think that this helps, but of > course, it does nothing: > > function doStuff() { > // some object that we're doing stuff with... > someObject.someMethod() > > // now we know we're done, and there should be no refs. > // but, there are, and they're leaking. > // I know! I'll do this: > delete someObject > // surprise! that does nothing. > } > > What do you folks think about a "free" operator (or something like it) > that would actually do what `delete` looks like it does? > > var obj = {} > var foo = { ref: obj } > var obj2 = obj > free obj // obviously this syntax probably won't work, since 'free' > is not a reserved word already > assert(obj === undefined) > assert(foo.ref === undefined) > assert(obj2 === undefined) > > So, any references to the freed object would be set to undefined, and > presumably at some point, the GC will harvest it. > > > Yes, yes, I know, the proper way to fix a memory leak in JS is to > properly manage references, but sometimes that means rewriting this > complicated app, and it's leaking memory now, in production. > > > Has this been discussed before? > _______________________________________________ > es-discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/es-discuss >
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