Re: Garbage Collection in Ada

[lars.farm@ite.mh.se (Lars Farm)]

Robert Dewar <dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu> wrote:

> Hmmm! I am surprised anyone would write this if they 
> had used GC languages.
...
> You may in practice need to be just as careful about adding
>
>   Junk := null;

Further down in the same post I also said: "if a solution solves a
majority of problems and leaves some to traditional techniques, is that
not better than a solution that solves none?" 

Granted, p = null; is different from Free(p); but the effect and intent
is the same and Free() is a traditional technique. There are also other
cases when one has to interfere.

In other posts to this thread I have said: "I don't think of GC as a
Silver Bullet, just a very useful tool." and "GC does one thing, one
thing only and does it very well."

> People who approach a GC language environment with
> this expectation will be disappointed!

I don't. This is Usenet, not an academic thesis. The wording doesn't get
much time and polish. If that offends you, I apologize. If you find that
surprising, then we have failed to communicate and I'm sorry.

I trust that you are able to interpret what I said, should you want to.


-- 
Lars Farm, lars.farm@ite.mh.se