> You'll probably have to learn the old way, "retain and release," > which is unique to Objective-C.
For the record, reference counting for memory management is one of the oldest techniques in software and is not unique to Objective-C or Cocoa. Microsoft Foundation Class CString uses it. COM/Active-X IUnknown uses it. It's essential to using DirectX. It's essential to using embedded controls.
The C++ Boost library provides "smart" pointers that are reference counted. Many Unix like operating systems use reference counted resources including file descriptors, semaphores, I/O buffers, and shared memory regions.
Different people learn different skills and mindsets in different orders, but let's be realistic - if reference counted memory management is too difficult for people to use, the people probably shouldn't call themselves programmers. That doesn't mean reference counting has to be the first thing a newbie learns, but refusing to learn it begs the question - what other basic programming techniques are being skipped ?
_______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
