From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2008-01-06T03:25:29+09:00
Subject: Re: Manual Memory Management

Marcin Raczkowski wrote:
> I would only like to add that RMgick for example provides free method to 
> release large images if they are not needed, and for me that's good thinkg.
> 
> solution to the above problem might be finding a way to assign Qnil to 
> all references before forcefully removing actuall value.
> 
> this way we would be able to release for example large file that we 
> loaded into memory becouse we had to do bunch of regexpes on it.
> Or if someone is making image manipulation library in pure ruby it would 
> be nice to be able to free that 20mb large bmp :]

This problem is solved by Nobu's suggestion to use a #clear method, 
rather than #free the ruby object, isn't it?

Nobu Nakada wrote:
> What kind of `large' objects?  In the case of a large string or
> array, just clear its content:
> 
>   large_string[0..-1] = ""
>   large_array.clear
> 
> In the case of an instance of your own class which has many
> instance variables, you should add clear method to it.


-- 
       vjoel : Joel VanderWerf : path berkeley edu : 510 665 3407