Article of interest: Python pros/cons for the enterprise

[Carl Banks]

On Feb 21, 7:17 pm, Jeff Schwab <j... at schwabcenter.com> wrote:
> Carl Banks wrote:
> > On Feb 21, 1:22 pm, Nicola Musatti <nicola.musa... at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> There are other downsides to garbage collection, as the fact that it
> >> makes it harder to implement the Resource Acquisition Is
> >> Initialization idiom, due to the lack of deterministic destruction.
>
> > That's not a downside: it's at least a wash.
>
> > In C++ you manage memory and the language manages resources.  In
> > Python you manage resources and the language manages memory.
>
> > RAII is merely one way of minimizing complexity.  Garbage collection
> > is another way.
>
> If you've already got a generic, language-supported way to manage
> resources (like RAII with deterministic destruction), then why bother
> with garbage collection?

Because now you have to manage memory?  Did you read my post?  You
have to manage one thing or the other.


> I'm not trying to knock it; it was a big step
> up from C-style "who forgot to delete a pointer" games.  It just seems
> to me like a solution to something that's no longer a problem, at least
> in well-written C++ code.  I'll take destructors over GC any day.

About 2% of the objects I creat have resources other than memory.  I
would rather manage resources of 2% of objects than manage memory of
100%.  YMMV, but I suspect mine is the more common opinion, if the
recent (like, 10-year) trend in programming languages is any
indication.


Carl Banks