Python vs Java garbage collection?

[Erik Max Francis]

Robert Oschler wrote:

> Wait a minute, didn't Martin just say in a previous post that you can
> rely
> on CPython to call __del__ when reference counts reach 0?  How could
> Python
> "forget" to decrement a reference count, even if an exception occurs
> in a
> finally block or anywhere else for that matter?

Peter was giving an example where the reference count _didn't_ go to
zero, but a naive programmer might not have noticed that.  It's yet
another reason why explicit reclaiming of external resources is a good
idea, even independently of this immediate vs. deferred finalization
issue; it leaves open the opportunity for bugs.

-- 
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