Hi,
I will address multiple previous e-mails on this subject :)
1. FPC does perform reference counting if variable type is interface,
but not if variable type is class that implements interface -
legacy/compatibility reasons?
If you want to do ARC for objects - just remove this limitation and
allow compiler to generate reference counting code not just for for
interfaces but for classes that implement interface - AFAIK any
interface in FPC/Delphi extends IUnknown and has reference counting methods.
2. I agree with Sven - adding reference counting to TObject is a bad idea
Please do not look at Delphi - they just follow Apple - and both
companies do not address real issues with their development tool chains
- it is all pure marketing.
In reality ARC and "weak" keyword do not magically solve the memory
management issues - you either have GC or you do not have GC - there is
no way around it.
I personally like TComponent approach - you have an object that owns
other objects - as soon as this object dies - all children and
grandchildren die too.
Combining it with ARC seems to me the way to go...
3. About "weak" attribute - current "strong" approach with interface
reference has a contract - it is either nil or pointer to valid instance.
If you mark interface reference as "weak" - how do you know whether this
not nil reference is valid or not - I can be missing something here -
please explain.
In Java weak reference is accessed through some intermediate object and
you can this object whether the reference is gone or is still valid -
but you need to have GC to do it...
Regards,
Gennady
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