[Python-Dev] Class destructor

[Guido van Rossum]

On 2/28/07, Nick Maclaren <nmm1 at cus.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> I am gradually making progress with my binary floating-point software,
> but have had to rewrite several times as I have forgotten most of the
> details of how to do it!  After 30 years, I can't say I am surprised.
>
> But I need to clean up workspace when a class (not object) is
> deallocated.  I can't easily use attributes, as people suggested,
> because there is no anonymous storage built-in type.  I could subvert
> one of the existing storage types (buffer, string etc.), but that is
> unclean.  And I could write one, but that is excessive.

Can you explain the reason for cleaning up in this scenario? Are you
rapidly creating and destroying temporary class objects? Why can't you
rely on the regular garbage collection process? Or does you class
create an external resource like a temp file?

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)