use Perl

• object refcounting (Score:1)

  by gilleain (9133)

  The only real (non car-based :) example I can remember seeing for static class variables is reference counting:
  
  public class MyBaseObject {
  
      public static int REFCOUNT;
  
      public MyBaseObject() {
          REFCOUNT++;
      }
  }
  
  public class DerivedObject extends MyBaseObject {
  
      public DerivedObject() {
          super();
      }
  
      public static void main(String[] args) {
          for (int i = 0 ; i
  • Re: (Score:1)

    by masak (6289)

    In other words, my Car example, but without the Car. :)

    Is it common to want to implement reference counting in this way? What's the use case?
    • Re:object refcounting (Score:1)

      by gilleain (9133) on 2010.04.22 10:27 (#71911)

      Doh. Yes, I didn't think that through really, did I?
      
      I have never used static class variables in Java. They seem like a subtle disaster waiting to happen. Also I try (where possible) to program without side-effects.
      
      Moreover, Java doesn't have proper destructors, so you can't decrease the count in any reasonable way.
      
      Is there perhaps a more reasonable use case for a kind of object-level namespace? It would be horrible in practice, but something like public static HashMap MyBaseObject.OBJECT_VARIABLES...
      
      Sounds like a guarantee of threading problems to me, though.

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