Python vs Java garbage collection?

Isaac To kkto at csis.hku.hk
Sun Dec 22 22:23:44 EST 2002


>>>>> "Erik" == Erik Max Francis <max at alcyone.com> writes:

    Erik> The problem is that it _is_ sloppy programming, even within
    Erik> Python.  In _CPython_, you're pretty much guaranteed that the file
    Erik> object will get reclaimed (and thus closed) rather quickly.
    Erik> You've no such guarantee in other Python implementations, such as
    Erik> Jython (where the __del__ method calling and reclaiming is done
    Erik> with finalizers) and thus happens whenever the object gets garbage
    Erik> collected, which may be soon after the statement executes or long
    Erik> after.

What if C-Python is the only thing I used and care?  And, you simply cannot
say that's broken if I have no way to test it (how about a flag of Python to
"disable garbage collection"?  Then one can reasonably test whether he is
relying on the GC too much.).

Regards,
Isaac.



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