From: Tim Hunter <TimHunter@...>
Date: 2007-12-11T10:55:30+09:00
Subject: Re: Zero-copy String Handling

Curt Sampson wrote:
> On 2007-12-11 08:50 +0900 (Tue), Tim Hunter wrote:
> 
>> For a problem of this scale, it seems like it would make sense to use a 
>> custom class that had some of the methods of String - enough for the 
>> callees to treat it like a String - but not in fact String. Give it a .to_s 
>> method to convert to a real String when it's really necessary.
> 
> That's a good idea. In fact, I could use a struct of the same shape as
> RString, and just invoke methods in string.c to do the real work for the
> methods I decide to implement. I could also leave the objects existant
> after the backing pages have been unmapped (as I do now with the String
> objects), but tweak them so that they throw an exception when you try
> to use them after that, as opposed to the current situation where the
> interpreter dumps core.
> 
> Thanks for the idea.
> 
> cjs

Works for me. RMagick 2 has the ability to "destroy" an image. A 
destroyed image is like a closed file. The object still exists but any 
attempt to use it raises a DestroyedImage exception.

-- 
RMagick: http://rmagick.rubyforge.org/