From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2008-03-22T21:29:52+09:00
Subject: Re: object destruction

On 22.03.2008 03:49, Joey Marino wrote:
> [Note:  parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]
> 
> 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

You do not need to destroy objects explicitly - GC will take care.  It's 
more important to make sure all resources (such as file handles) are 
released and you do not hold longer onto your instances than needed.

> 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

The code above does not work as intended as Ara has pointed out.

> 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?

Yes, see above.

Kind regards

	robert