Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!mcnc!rti!xyzzy!yoyodyne.rtp.dg.com!langley
From: langley@yoyodyne.rtp.dg.com
Newsgroups: comp.lang.eiffel
Subject: What happens when you're gone and forgotten?
Message-ID: <1586@xyzzy.UUCP>
Date: 19 Mar 90 12:33:33 GMT
Sender: usenet@xyzzy.UUCP
Reply-To: langley@yoyodyne.rtp.dg.com ()
Organization: Data General Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC
Lines: 21


How do I write a class so that a routine will get called
every time the object is forgotten?

In particular, whenever the object becomes unreachable, or
is subjected to an explict forget operation, I want a class
routine to get called.

Stated another way, if I have a function that is called whenever
something is created, it seems like I should have a function
called when it is deleted too.  Alternatively, if creation is
implicit then destruction should be implicit too.  Being allowed
an explicit constructor, but no destructor, seems inconsistent.

People who have used C++ will know what I am talking about when
I ask "how do you define a destructor?"  Is it the case that
for some reason this sort of functionality isn't useful in Eiffel?
It seems to me that even in a GC-ed environment I might like to
have some way of keeping references to my own objects...

Mark Langley
langley@dg-rtp.dg.com