Elan wrote:
>With automatic garbage collection, i.e. memory getting automatically
>reclaimed, I think the motivation behind a destructor function no longer
>exists and a destructor function is no longer critical.

There are other functions performed by destructors, or finalizers
as they are called in garbage-collected environments. For instance,
finalizers are typically used to close ports, release references to
external resources, etc.

Since REBOL doesn't currently have native CORBA or COM support, the
resource releasing function isn't quite as important, but closing
ports is. The only way to get around the need for finalization here
would be for the garbage collector to automatically close the ports
it reclaims using some internal method, something it currently does
not do (I checked).

I've added finalization as an enhancement request to Feedback.

Brian

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