Re: Proposal: Ref Counting Conventions (CLOSED)

[Miguel de Icaza <miguel helixcode com>]

Darin,

   You raise a good point, and I think we need to continue the debate
from where we are now.

   Michael's proposal only covers the CORBA level: how reference
counting works at the Bonobo::Unknown level.  It does not cover other
uses of it.  Ie, the reference counting applies to objects that are
returned over a CORBA call boundary.

   For instance:

>     bonobo_object_from_servant
>     bonobo_object_get_servant
>     bonobo_object_activate_servant
>     bonobo_object_corba_objref

   These are utility functions from the CORBA/Gtk merging land: none
of those return objects that were returned from a remote component,
they are simply routines that return the values you already "own".

   Besides object_from_servant is again, just a utility function that
maps the CORBA servants to the CORBA object references.

>     bonobo_embeddable_construct_full
>     bonobo_embeddable_construct

These again, do not invoke any remote methods.  Note that these
methods return the GtkObject fully constructed or NULL.  They do not
return a Bonobo_Unkonwn that was returned from a remote method or
CORBA_OBJECT_NIL. 

Miguel.