Re: [gtk-list] Re: Reference counting

[Kenneth Albanowski <kjahds kjahds com>]

On Thu, 27 Nov 1997, Patrice Fortier wrote:

> 
> Kenneth Albanowski wrote:
> > Nonsense, IMO. Each GUI kit (and all libraries, for that matter) have
> > their own "contracts" with the programmer, and there aren't many libraries
> > where you can free() objects willy-nilly and expect everything to work
> > perfectly. Reference counting is a reliable, portable technique that many
> > libraries use (and virtually all interpreters use), that if _well
> > integrated_ with the Gtk library, should be mostly transparent.
> 
> hmmm.. I think I've been misunderstood.
> I didn't say not to use reference counting, I said that if we use
> ref counting *and* free(), we'll have to use ref counting as a default,
> and use free() only for special cases. Mixing ref. count. *and* free
> without that may be too confusing for new users.
> 
> Sorry, english is not my natural language...

My fault entirely. I did indeed get it backwards, and ended up saying the
same thing you did. Yes, I quite agree, unref() _and_ free() will be more
complicated, and it is good to have as much consistency as possible. 

-- 
Kenneth Albanowski (kjahds@kjahds.com, CIS: 70705,126)