[fpc-devel] (ref types / circles) Re: Defer keyword

[Sven Barth]

Am 10.05.2021 um 23:18 schrieb Ryan Joseph via fpc-devel:
>
>> On May 10, 2021, at 3:05 PM, Sven Barth via fpc-devel <fpc-devel at lists.freepascal.org> wrote:
>>
>> Why should they? You pass the reference to a non-reference counted parameter/field/variable, the reference count is increased and then what? It sits there for the remaining life time of the program, because nothing decrements the reference count?
> I see what you mean. The FGL containers also call Finalize though when the container is freed so it does indeed keep balanced.
But only if the generic container is indeed specialized with the 
refcounted type. If it's e.g. TObject then the whole thing is up in the 
air again, because the whole point is that we *don't* want to burden 
non-reference counted class types with the reference counting stuff (and 
the need to check at runtime whether the type is reference counted or 
not *is* a burden).

Regards,
Sven