It sounds to me like you want to use garbage collection, not manual
memory management.
Does C automatically free() memory when pointers get replaced? No,
obviously not. Doing so would be silly, and its even more silly to
want such behavior with Objective-C.
This:
inputString = [NSString string];
inputString = [inputString myMethod];
would crash once the local autorelease pool was emptied using the
behavior you described. You can't just willy nilly release objects. If
you reassign the pointer. Or, what about this:
inputString = [[NSString alloc] init];
someIvar = inputString;
inputString = [inputString myMethod];
Oops! someIvar now points to deallocated memory, and of course it
doesn't point to the "new" inputString.
The behavior you propose suggests a very narrow and underdeveloped
view on memory and memory management - there is no special connection
between an object and the variables that are pointers to that object,
and it seems to me that you think this on some level. Manual memory
management is just that - manual - you don't want to compiler
automatically releasing stuff for you.
Bryan
On Feb 6, 2009, at 5:24 AM, harry greenmonster wrote:
I cant help but think the preferable way Objective C should would is
to send a release automatically to the receiver of a product of
itself.
inputString = [inputString myMethod];
Its fairly clear in this situation that the original 'inputString'
is not wanted and needs to die, and would seem like a more sensible
way for the compiler to work as I struggle to think of a situation
where the old value serves any perpose, being that it is now
orphaned and useless.
Hence my confusion on the matter.
On 6 Feb 2009, at 03:17, Scott Ribe wrote:
So, how do I keep a copy hanging around AND kill the mysterious new
copy then (which shares the same name as the old one presumably)?
2 pointer variables...
--
Scott Ribe
scott_r...@killerbytes.com
http://www.killerbytes.com/
(303) 722-0567 voice
_______________________________________________
Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com)
Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list.
Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/bryanhenry%40mac.com
This email sent to bryanhe...@mac.com
_______________________________________________
Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com)
Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list.
Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
