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From: Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: High level C
Date: Fri, 05 Aug 2016 08:24:18 -0700
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Melzzzzz <mel@zzzzz.com> writes:
> On Thu, 04 Aug 2016 19:17:42 -0700
> Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
>> Something I wanted to mention but didn't work its way into the
>> flow is how to deal with resources (eg, open files).  Any
>> resource that is needed normally will be given its own object.
>> When a resource object is allocation, normally it will register
>> a "finalization hook", a function that is called just before
>> the object is about to be reclaimed.  I think most collectors
>> these days provide a way to associate finalization hooks with
>> allocated objects, for exactly this purpose.
>
> Wrong. Finalizers are useless for resource management as conservative GC
> is non deterministic. Finalizers are only good for debugging purposes...

I would imagine that non-deterministic finalization might still be
useful.  For example, if you have an open file associated with some
object, closing that file *eventually* might be good enough.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
Working, but not speaking, for JetHead Development, Inc.
"We must do something.  This is something.  Therefore, we must do this."
    -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"