Hong Zhang wrote:
> Most of finalization is used to deal with external resource, such as open
> file, socket, window. You don't really want to depend on finalization,
> since it is very likely run out of default file descriptor limit before
> the finalization kicks in. The rule of thumb is to let finalization to
> cleanup resource when an unexpected exception happens. It is more like
> a safe-net or parachute. It is most likely to help you in emergency, but
> there is no guarantee it will work.
>
There's a really interesting paper by one of the .NET development team
explaining why finalization and GC just don't go together:
http://www.mvps.org/vbnet/dev/vb7/vbdotnet_ms_resmanagement.htm
The answer used in .NET is to have a dispose() method (which is not a
special name--just an informal standard) that the class user calls manually
to clean up resources. It's not an ideal solution but there doesn't seem to
be many other practical options.
