On Jul 22, 4:09 pm, Joseph Earl <joseph.w.e...@gmail.com> wrote: > I am confused somewhat about the issue myself now. Hopefully someone > else it will clear it up once and for all. > A great explanation is here: http://jnb.ociweb.com/jnb/archive/jnbJune2000.html
Use weak references when you are creating a reference to an object somewhere (usually a collection or another thread) but you don't want that reference to prevent it from being GC'd, or "deleted". The reason they use weak references in the example you looked at is that they are creating a separate thread from the main app thread. If the main thread doesn't need those objects any more, they would normally be deleted. But if you've got a background thread going, with references to those objects, then they won't be deleted until the background thread is finished. Since, in the given example's case, the background threads are "useless" without the main thread, we don't want the background thread to prevent those objects from being deleted, so they are created with weak references. NOTE: If you never used weak references, just regular "strong" references, in the scenario with a main app thread and a background thread, then everything would still work. When the main thread ends, but the background thread is still going, the background thread's objects aren't deleted yet. But when the background thread dies, then they are deleted. What you gain by using weak references is just a quicker way to delete those objects on the background thread when the main thread ends. I would guess that, in a typical "background download" scenario, by using weak references instead of regular "strong" references all you're doing is keeping the memory from being reclaimed for at most 30 seconds. The amount of time depends on what's going on in the background, and the amount of memory depends on your app. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
