Re: Singleton_pattern and Thread Safety
On Dec 15, 5:26 pm, gwowen <gwo...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Dec 15, 5:15 pm, Leigh Johnston <le...@i42.co.uk> wrote:
How the OS handles a leak is irrelevant to the issue of whether it is a
leak. The definition of what constitutes a leak transcends all
operating systems. A leak is an explicit allocation that does not have
a matching explicit deallocation.
So you keep saying. And Microsoft seem to agree with you. But Apple
don't. Apple say its an allocation to which you no longer have a
reference.
And most practicing programmers use a more useful definition
than either: a leak is an allocation pattern which causes
unbounded memory use. The fact that there is still a pointer to
the memory doesn't stop it from being a leak, if you never use
the memory, and are constantly allocating new memory.
"A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw,
mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system *that
produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in
unintended ways*" - Wikipedia, again.
Yes and a leak is a bug according to that definition
Really? In those cases where the OS reclaims memory at process
termination, what is the incorrect or unexpected result or unintended
behaviour?
A leak is a bug according to that definition. The problem is
that Leigh (and you, apparently) have redefined leak in a way
that it isn't a bug. (Unbound memory use is a bug. Regardless
of whether you still have a pointer to the memory or not.)
--
James Kanze