Re: [DotGNU]question about Finalize in C#

[S11001001]

Juhani Honkala wrote:
> You should never depend on a finalizers to release any criticial 
> resources. Instead of writing finalizer write an explicit release
> method like Dispose() and use Finalize() only as a safety net or last
> resort (in case user forgets to call Dispose()). Remember to call
> superclass Finalize() if you override Finalize(). (If my memory serves
> me right there's an interface in C# called IDispose that's tries to
> somehow standardize use of explicit destruction, i'm not 100% sure tho) 

The finalizers aren't so useful in C# (nor Java) because so many 
resources are "managed", i.e., file descriptors, memory, whatnot. Those 
implementing the IDisposable interface (which abstracts Dispose(bool), 
not Dispose()) can use the using (MyObject declaration_var) {} to call 
Dispose at the end of the last bracket, IIRC (though I don't remember 
whether it calls Dispose(true) or Dispose(false)).

The difference between the args is that when you pass true, it also 
"releases" managed resources; how I write it when it comes up is to set 
all Objects (i.e., pointers) to null, because it doesn't say whether to 
go recursive to instance vars in what I've read (BCL std), and anyway, 
they may still be in use elsewhere.

--
Stephen Compall
DotGNU `Contributor' -- http://dotgnu.org

There are many people who say, "Well, first let's invite people to
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could be a reasonable strategy, but what we have is almost everybody's
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them about freedom once they come in...If you think talking about
software freedom is a good strategy, please join in doing step
two. There are plenty working on step one.
        -- RMS, on the Free Software/`Open Source' community