JavaScript object destructor method ???

[Eli]

Hi,

Is there any way that I can define a destructor for an object in
JavaScript that will be called automatically when object is discarded?
<script type="text/javascript">
MyOBJ.prototype=new Object();
MyOBJ.prototype.constructor=MyOBJ;
function MyOBJ()
{
alert('Constructor!');
}
MyOBJ.prototype.destructor=function()
{
alert('Destructor!');
}

var my_obj=new MyOBJ(); //<-- will show 'Constructor!'
delete my_obj; //<-- will show 'Destructor!'
</script>
-thanks in advance, Eli

[VK]

Memory alloc/calloc in JavaScript works similar to Java. You don't need
and you really cannot free the memory directly, because you don't have
a direct memory access. You can remove a reference to a custom object
by doing myObject = null;
If it was the last reference to the instance, it gets marked as free to
remove and it will be eventually removed by the garbage collector.

[Eli]

But what if I want to delete all the references to an object?
I got some references to the same object, and I want to delete the
object totally in all references. Is it possible?

-thanks, Eli

[VK]

Sure! Just keep track of all references you are creating ;-) and don't
make more references than it's necessary ;-)
If the task could be solved globally by some simple trick, we would not
hear about memory leaks (but we do).

[Lasse Reichstein Nielsen]

"Eli" <el*****@gmail.com> writes:

But what if I want to delete all the references to an object?
Feel free. That's not guaranteed to delete the object, though.

ECMAScript makes no requirements on memory management, so there is no
guarantee that any object is ever destroyed. Some implementations will
indubiably use a grabage collector, while others will merely keep
allocating until the page is unloaded.
I got some references to the same object, and I want to delete the
object totally in all references. Is it possible?

Given only one reference, no.

/L
--
Lasse Reichstein Nielsen - lr*@hotpop.com
DHTML Death Colors: <URL:http://www.infimum.dk/HTML/rasterTriangleDOM.html>
'Faith without judgement merely degrades the spirit divine.'

[Douglas Crockford]

Eli wrote:

Is there any way that I can define a destructor for an object in
JavaScript that will be called automatically when object is discarded?

No. Why do you think you need to?