Manual memory management in D2

[Bruno Medeiros]

On 13/07/2010 19:36, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> free(). But manual deletion has no business in the garbage collected
> heap. That currently druntime provides it is an accident caused by the
> current implementation; most GC's cannot provide efficient manual
> reclamation. And they shouldn't anyway.
>
> (There's a longer discussion underneath this concerning what memory
> really is and what GCs really are and do.)
>
>
> Andrei

Why not simply make 'delete' an operation that states "I assert that 
there are no references to this object, and it will no longer be used." 
The GC is then free to do whatever it wants with the object, claim its 
memory now, or later, etc.. Surely then, 'delete' is never an 
unefficient operation?

Is that what clear() does? I'm not sure what exactly clear() does, I 
wasn't able to find definite information on it.


-- 
Bruno Medeiros - Software Engineer