”If you're storing a reference on the heap somewhere, you suddenly have dynamic lifetimes with indeterminate reference counts, and it gets quite hard to 1) corr

”If you're storing a reference on the heap somewhere, you suddenly have dynamic lifetimes with indeterminate reference counts, and it gets quite hard to 1) correctly manage memory and 2) verify that you're correctly managing memory.” It is axiomatic that GC programs leak memory. I’ve never encountered one that didn’t. The difference is that it’s harder to see, and most programmers who have grown up with GC systems don’t know how to fix it. ”The alternative is that in all three instances in a GC language, I don't have to care about memory management.” Again, no. The alternative is thar you aren’t paying attention, and don’t see the leaks until they become fatal. Just like cockroaches, you have them, somewhere.