I think you are being borderline pedantic here. ARC _is_ GC in the classic sense: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_collection_(computer_science)#Reference_

I think you are being borderline pedantic here. ARC _is_ GC in the classic sense: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_collection_(computer_science)#Reference_counting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_collection_(computer_s... I agree with you that most people tend to associate GC with something more advanced nowadays, like mark and sweep as you said in another comment, but it seems pointless to argue that ARC is not a form of GC.