Segmentation error at the end problem (148 line program listing)

[Daniel Keep]

grauzone wrote:
> The garbage collector isn't guaranteed to to free and destroy an
> unreachable object. That's because the GC is conservative. So if you
> want to be sure the object's resources are freed, you have to do it
> explicitly.
> 
> I think you have two choices:
> 1. Remove close() from the destructor, and call close() manually when
> you're done.
> 2. Use scope or delete to ensure the destructor is always directly
> called, and never by the GC.
> 
> 
> Here's how you can use scope:
> 
> {
>     scope BlockFile f = new BlockFile(...);
>     //... do something with f
> } //f goes out of scope, and the compiler inserts delete f;

If you're going to do that, you really should make the it a scope class
to ensure you never accidentally let the GC try to delete it.

I (and a few others) petitioned what feels like years ago for a simple
argument to dtors to distinguish between deterministic destruction
(delete/scope) and automatic destruction (GC).  Never gained any ground,
sadly.

  -- Daniel