Idea #1 on integrating RC with GC

[deadalnix]

On Tuesday, 4 February 2014 at 23:51:35 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:
> Consider we add a library slice type called RCSlice!T. It would 
> have the same primitives as T[] but would use reference 
> counting through and through. When the last reference count is 
> gone, the buffer underlying the slice is freed. The underlying 
> allocator will be the GC allocator.
>
> Now, what if someone doesn't care about the whole RC thing and 
> aims at convenience? There would be a method .toGC that just 
> detaches the slice and disables the reference counter (e.g. by 
> setting it to uint.max/2 or whatever).
>
> Then people who want reference counting say
>
> auto x = fun();
>
> and those who don't care say:
>
> auto x = fun().toGC();
>
>
> Destroy.
>
> Andrei

RC need GC to collect loops. So you want to have the GC at the 
lowest level.

That being understood, I'd rather connect things the other way 
around.

auto x = foo();
auto x = foo().toRC();