Check Garbage Collection Eligibility in Feature Requests

ID:115204
 
Jun 29 2011, 8:45 pm
Applies to:Dream Maker
Status: Open
Issue hasn't been assigned a status value.
There doesn't seem to be a way to check if atoms are eligible for garbage collection. It would be nice if there was.
#1 Jun 29 2011, 8:47 pm
If you're going to check it that means you have a reference to it and that means that it won't be eligible for garbage collection.
#2 Jun 29 2011, 8:52 pm
Something like this shouldn't be effected.
world/New()
    ..()
    spawn()while(1)
        for(var/A)if(canGarbageCollect(A))world<<A
        sleep(10)
#3 Jun 29 2011, 8:54 pm
SuperAntx wrote:
Something like this shouldn't be effected.
world/New()
>   ..()
>   spawn()while(1)
>       for(var/A)if(canGarbageCollect(A))world<<A
>       sleep(10)

I somewhat understand what your saying but having for(var/A) already creates a reference anyway you look at it.
#4 Jun 29 2011, 8:58 pm
Hmm, I guess you're right. You might need some sort of type modifier like tmp or global to prevent the reference from interfering with the garbage collector.
#5 Jun 29 2011, 9:34 pm
What about being able to read /refcount?
#6 Jun 29 2011, 9:35 pm
Hiro the Dragon King wrote:
What about being able to read /refcount?

That sounds better.
#7 Jun 30 2011, 5:32 pm
If an object has a refcount of 0 it's deleted immediately, so this proc would never work.

Being able to read the refcount could be borderline useful, but I've considered that before and as I recall there was something wrong with it that I couldn't work out.