32 ms·

How does memory management work with ruby and iOS? I did not find the information on the website.

acangiano 14y ago
From the Features: "It's Ruby, you don't need to think about managing memory. Ever. RubyMotion will by itself release the objects you create when they are no longer needed. Our memory model, similar to Objective-C ARC in design, does not require any extra memory or processor footprint to allocate and reclaim unused objects."
- webjprgm 14y ago
  I still wonder how they did that. The classic problem with reference counting is correctly releasing cycles, which ARC handles by allowing "weak" references. How does MacRuby know when to insert a weak reference as opposed to the usual "strong" reference? If that could be automatically detected, why does Obj-C ARC not automatically do it for you?
  - chc 14y ago
    "Object cycles, when two or more objects refer to each other, are currently not handled by the runtime, but will be in future releases." So, basically, you're stuck with retain cycles right now. My bet is that they implement a way of marking weak references rather than becoming more intelligent than ARC.
    - smparkes 14y ago
      I wonder how big a deal this will be. Relying on GC feels like it goes hand in hand with dynamic languages. I'm used to not having to worry about cycles. Of course, I guess I'm use to not having to worry too much about memory, either ... Weak references aren't a panacea. It's not that uncommon to have cycles where all edges are equally strong. Any social graph ... I use use counts to collect those cycles. ARC doesn't let you use use counts, but you don't have to use ARC everywhere. You do have to access to the underlying use counts ... MacRuby should allow access to that (it's just a standard Cocoa call) as long as it doesn't keep stray retains around that screw up my count balances ...
      - chc 14y ago
        You can still use counts — you just can't use Foundation's retain count. And I think CoreData is the answer to problems like a social graph. It does its own specialized memory management. But you're right, it's awkward to have to think about it.
  - chrismealy 14y ago
    Figuring when to use strong and weak is the only problem I have with ObjC.

From the Features: "It's Ruby, you don't need to think about managing memory. Ever. RubyMotion will by itself release the objects you create when they are no longer needed. Our memory model, similar to Objective-C ARC in design, does not require any extra memory or processor footprint to allocate and reclaim unused objects."

webjprgm 14y ago
I still wonder how they did that. The classic problem with reference counting is correctly releasing cycles, which ARC handles by allowing "weak" references. How does MacRuby know when to insert a weak reference as opposed to the usual "strong" reference? If that could be automatically detected, why does Obj-C ARC not automatically do it for you?
- chc 14y ago
  "Object cycles, when two or more objects refer to each other, are currently not handled by the runtime, but will be in future releases." So, basically, you're stuck with retain cycles right now. My bet is that they implement a way of marking weak references rather than becoming more intelligent than ARC.
  - smparkes 14y ago
    I wonder how big a deal this will be. Relying on GC feels like it goes hand in hand with dynamic languages. I'm used to not having to worry about cycles. Of course, I guess I'm use to not having to worry too much about memory, either ... Weak references aren't a panacea. It's not that uncommon to have cycles where all edges are equally strong. Any social graph ... I use use counts to collect those cycles. ARC doesn't let you use use counts, but you don't have to use ARC everywhere. You do have to access to the underlying use counts ... MacRuby should allow access to that (it's just a standard Cocoa call) as long as it doesn't keep stray retains around that screw up my count balances ...
    - chc 14y ago
      You can still use counts — you just can't use Foundation's retain count. And I think CoreData is the answer to problems like a social graph. It does its own specialized memory management. But you're right, it's awkward to have to think about it.
- chrismealy 14y ago
  Figuring when to use strong and weak is the only problem I have with ObjC.