Re: Getting the index for an element in mutually referencing containers

[Simon Wright <simon@pushface.org>]

Niklas Holsti <niklas.holsti@tidorum.invalid> writes:

> On 17-03-11 23:46 , Simon Wright wrote:
>
>> Basically, I (Simon, now) am having trouble thinking of an
>> application where reference counting would be an appropriate
>> solution.
>
> How about this one: the SW generates messages (telemetry packets)
> reporting various sorts of data and events.
>
[...]
>
> Each destination has a queue of incoming messages, and the queueing
> and processing time for a given message varies accordingly. Rather
> than copy the (possibly long) message into each destination's queue,
> the queues hold references to a single, shared instance of the
> message, dynamically allocated in a memory pool. These references are
> counted. When, finally, all destinations have processed the message,
> the message's reference count reaches zero, and the message can be
> deallocated.
>
> This use of reference counting is a typical design in satellite
> on-board SW.

Thanks for the example!

I still have a feeling that this is an in-computer software technique
which resolves a software problem, rather than a necessary response to
an application-domain problem.