[gclist] Finalization and object orientation.

[stuart]

> Finalization in Java is indeed poorly specified.  If I had
> speculate at the reasons for this, my hunch would be to allow
> normal process-level cleanup to handle everything (if so
> desired by the VM implementer) rather than delaying process
> termination while a bunch of (redundant) finalizers are run.

this assumes that java is being run 
 * in a user-level process, not as [part of] the kernel
 * as a process of bounded execution duration and complexity

my feelings are that the GC/finalisation issues were felt 
poorly specified to avoid portibility problems and becuase
java was designed for low-level things, and no one had ever
written a GC/finaliser sub-system for things at that level
before. (or not to my knowledge)

stuart




-- 
         stuart yeates <stuart@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz> aka `loam'
                  you are a child of the kernel space 
            no less than the daemons and the device drivers,
                   you have a right to execute here.