From: Joey Marino <joey.da3rd@...>
Date: 2008-03-22T11:49:52+09:00
Subject: object destruction

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I have a list of objects and after each initialization a few methods are
called on them. They are inherently different but perform the same tasks on
a different set of data. These tasks require ALOT of memory. After the
object has performed its tasks on the data, it is no longer needed and can
be destroyed. This way, its memory space can be used for the next object. I
am having difficulty destroying these objects since there is no destructor
capability in ruby that I can find. I have tried using the garbage collector
like follows:

-------------------------------------------------
include GC
GC.enable
GC.starto

obj = Object1.new
obj.method
obj.finalize

ObjectSpace.garbage_collect

obj2 - Object2.new
obj2.method
obj.finalize

ObjectSpace.garbage_collect

####################

class Object
  def initialize
     ObjectSpace.define_finalizer(self,self.finalize)
  end

  def finalize
     proc{ |id| puts "finalizing #{id}" }
  end
end

class Object1 < Object
  def initialize
    super
    @some_attribute = 1
  end
end

class Object2 < Object
  def initialize
    super
    @some_attribute = 2
  end
end
_________________________

I am assuming this does not destroy the objects since there is no output and
memory is not released. I am not even getting output of a finalized object
at the end of runtime.
Am I doing something wrong or just missing out a key concept here?
-- 
Joey Marino

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