22 lines
996 B
Text
22 lines
996 B
Text
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ruby-ref provides object references for Ruby as well as some common
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utilities for working with references. Object references are used to
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point to other objects and come in three distinct flavors that interact
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differently with the garbage collector.
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* Ref::StrongReference - This is a plain old pointer to another object.
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* Ref::WeakReference - This is a pointer to another object, but it is
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not seen by the garbage collector and the memory used by the object can
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be reclaimed at any time.
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* Ref::SoftReference - This is similar to a weak reference, but the
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garbage collector is not as eager to reclaim the referenced object.
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All of these classes extend from a common Ref::Reference class and have
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a common interface.
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Weak and soft references are useful when you have instantiated objects
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that you may want to use again but can recreate if necessary. Since the
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garbage collector determines when to reclaim the memory used by the
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objects, you don't need to worry about bloating the Ruby heap.
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