Re: Basic GObject question

[Andreas Stricker <andreas stricker fela ch>]

> Please don't laugh at me ;P Can someone explain me what reference counting
> is for?

Wikipedia explain it not too bad:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_counting

For glib specific implementation details I recomment to read this document:

http://le-hacker.org/papers/gobject/

And a short overview in my own words:

Each GObject contains a counter that is incremented by each owner of the
object. If one owner don't need the object anymore*, he decrement the
counter. If the counter reach zero, there isn't an owner anymore so the
object can be freed.
So reference counting is something like a half-automated garbage collector.
Reference counting in C still needs discipline and is error prone, but still
easier than manual free() operations.

* usually before the reference (pointer) to the object is overwritten,
  replaced or just not used anymore

Cheers, Andy