True disposable objects (add "Finalized!" assertion)

[Simen Kjaeraas]

On Fri, 04 May 2012 19:29:11 +0200, Jonathan M Davis <jmdavisProg at gmx.com>  
wrote:

> On Friday, May 04, 2012 18:28:51 Denis Shelomovskij wrote:
>> This idea is too obvious and I suppose I'm the only one not knowing it,
>> but I have never seen it's implementation. Why?
>>
>> The idea:
>> 1. `Object` class has hidden `isAlive` field which is true since
>> construction and up to finalization.
>> 2. Every method asserts that the object is alive first.
>> 3. There is an `finalize` function that just rt_finalize an object in
>> debug mode but can even free memory in release mode.
>>
>> Isn't it no-brainer? Isn't it the only way to debug manual memory
>> management and shared resources without error-prone boilerplate?
>>
>> This is what I missed in C#, where I can dispose an object but I have to
>> manually check the object isn't disposed every time I use it or in every
>> it's method to find where I'm doing something with a disposed object by
>> a mistake.
>>
>>
>> IMHO finding using of dead references is almost as major as not allowing
>> to free memory of alive objects (I mean GC), but GC is often implemented
>> and dead references detection isn't.
>>
>> Strongly require your thoughts.
>
> And why would you even _have_ a dead object? It's the GC's job to  
> destroy and
> free GC-allocated objects. The only case where you might normally run  
> into a
> dead object would be if you use clear, but if you're using clear in  
> situations
> where you then might end up using the object afterwards, then it's likely
> you're using it unwisely.

I believe the idea was that it'd blow up if you use it unwisely. clear  
might
do that, but if you're unlucky, it'll 'work' just fine, giving you problems
later.