From: justinj@... (Justin Johnson)
Date: 2002-07-02T20:11:24+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby implementation Q's

> Explicit destruction is almost never a good idea, since it's far too
> easy to forget or to create a code path that happens to skip
> destruction.

I'm suggesting that being able to remove a variable (and have it
broadcast a destroy message) is a useful feature which would
facilitate resource management.  I'm not suggesting it as a
replacement for gc, more like a suppliment.

I wouldn't even be thinking about this if an object knew the moment it
wasn't referenced anymore and could call a destroy method.  Python and
Perl know this but it can't be 100% guaranteed because cyclic
references have to be handled with a mark-and-sweep gc.

Justin Johnson