No one these days, apart from my team (ie CLR), should be implementing finalizers:
1) If your class does not own a managed disposable resource, then don't implement dispose. 2) If your class owns a managed disposable resource, then only implement Dispose. 3) If your class owns a native resource - wrap it in a SafeHandle (create a new class if there's isn't an appropriate one), and only implement Dispose. You should never have to implement a finalizer, except in very rare situations. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jano Petras Sent: Friday, February 03, 2012 12:12 AM To: ozDotNet Subject: Re: Dispose and Finalizer in 4.0 Hi David, Looking here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/b1yfkh5e%28v=vs.100%29.aspx Finalize is called by GC when there are no references to the instance. Dispose is explicit way to clean up those resources before GC kicks in. If dispose was invoked, there is no reason for Finalize to do anything - hence GS.SuppressFinalize If dispose was not invoked, the Finalize will be invoked (at some point) by GC. This is the Dispose(false) situation, where only unmanaged resources are released. The reason for this is that managed ones will be cleaned up by GC as well (in the same way it is cleaning up this current instance). RE: your question: Should I be implementing a ~Finalize in the code as well as a Dispose method in 4.0? Yes, because you can never say with 100% certainty that every developer that will touch the code will always call Dispose on the instance. The finalizer is here to be on the safe side :) Cheers, jano On 2 February 2012 13:03, David Rhys Jones <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Hi guys, I've just had an interesting conversation with one of the other guys here concerning the Dispose pattern. Should I be implementing a ~Finalize in the code as well as a Dispose method in 4.0? points. 1. No unmanaged resources in the code at all, 2. the virtual dispose method has a if(disposing) wrapped around the dispose code. My point of view is that the objects in question, will never have the finalizer called because of the GC.Suppress and the finalizer if it is called, doesn't do anything because of the Dispose(false). Opinions? Thanks Davy, The US Congress voted Pizza sauce a vegetable. Don't even try to convince me of anything in the states is sane any more!
