[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Now it would appear that if you **malloc an array of PyObjects**
> (call it FOO[]) then you have an ambiguity....
>
> The PyObject elements will be freed *for us* eventually by garbage
> collector.
>
> Hence, we can't ever do 'free(FOO); ' because we don't know when
> garbage collector will free FOO[0], FOO[1], FOO[2], etc.
you're not quite getting how reference counting works. the fact that
you have a pointer to a Python object stuffed away somewhere is
completely irrelevant to the Python garbage collector; all it cares
about is the reference count of the object itself. if the reference
count is not zero, someone somewhere might have a pointer to the object,
so the object must be preserved. if the reference count drops to zero,
nobody is supposed to have a pointer anymore, so the object can be removed.
if you use malloc to allocate a memory block and store PyObject pointers
in it, you must
1) make sure that the reference count is *incremented* (Py_INCREF) when
you add the objects (unless the object is new; when you create an
object, the reference count is set to 1). this tells Python that you
have a pointer to an object that you plan to use some time in the future.
2) make sure that the reference count is *decremented* (Py_DECREF) if
you remove the objects (this tells Python that *you* won't access the
object any more; if nobody else uses it either, it can safely be removed).
required reading:
http://docs.python.org/api/objects.html
</F>
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