Design thought for callbacks

[Marko Rauhamaa]

Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info>:

> I don't know about Java's Hotspot, but I do know that CPython's ref counting
> garbage collector has at least one advantage over the GC used by Jython and
> IronPython: unlike them, open files are closed as soon as they are no
> longer in use.

You can't depend on that kind of behavior. Dangling resources may or may
not be cleaned up, ever.

> Oh, a bit of trivia: Apple is abandoning their garbage collector and going
> back to a reference counter:
>
> https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=02202015a
>
> Word on Reddit is that Apple is concerned about performance and battery
> life.

That truly is a bit OT here.

> It's like explicitly closing a file, either with file.close() or a context
> manager.

Both methods are explicit. Closing files and other resources are not
directly related to GC.

Here's the thing: GC relieves your from dynamic memory management. You
are still on your own when it comes to other resources.

> We're not trying to scare beginners, we're a group of moderately
> experienced coders discussing "best practice" (or at least "reasonable
> practice") when using callbacks.

Who mentioned beginners? I'm abiding by the same best practices I'm
advocating.


Marko