JEP 132: More-prompt finalization

[Kirk Pepperdine]

On 2012-01-06, at 3:41 AM, David Holmes wrote:

> On 6/01/2012 3:37 AM, Kirk Pepperdine wrote:
>> I get the feeling that what people are looking for is a destructor..
>> and in Java the destructor is close(). One has to consider finalization
>> of any resource to be the mechanism of last resort or when all else
>> fails, finalization will catch it (assuming it has a chance to run). Eg,
>> it's the application's responsibility to call close(). If you know
>> enough to call System.gc() (or any other API), you should know enough to
>> call close.
> 
> Not to defend finalization in any way but the key difference is that any part of the code can call System.gc() or System.runFinalization() without needing to know what exactly needs to be finalized. Afterall the key thing about GC is it relieves the programmer from having to manage object lifetimes, so if you don't know when the object is no longer used you don't know when to call close.

I think this is my point, band aiding over not knowing when to call close with a call to the system saying do something expensive that will most likely have little value isn't a call that I'd like to see. More over, if you dig deeper into these types of problems it seems like there are safer, more viable solutions.

Regards,
Kirk