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Article of interest: Python pros/cons for the enterprise

Aahz aahz at pythoncraft.com
Wed Feb 27 15:42:39 EST 2008 
In article <3b3111d3-699d-4f8d-b99e-87a0666f60a7 at b29g2000hsa.googlegroups.com>,
Carl Banks  <pavlovevidence at gmail.com> wrote:
>On Feb 24, 7:03 pm, a... at pythoncraft.com (Aahz) wrote:
>> In article <Y9KdnVYb7bq_m13anZ2dnUVZ_sedn... at comcast.com>,
>> Jeff Schwab  <j... at schwabcenter.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>(3) Garbage collection is at least as desirable a language feature as
>>>deterministic destruction.
>>
>> Enh.  There probably are some people who claim that, but I can't think
>> of any off-hand.
>
>I am most certainly claiming it; in fact I'm claiming that GC far more
>desirable, because the cost of deterministic destruction is too high.

I'm trimming the rest of your post because I don't have time to argue
with you, but I want to point out that you're making the same mistake
that Jeff is: garbage collection and deterministic destruction are not
the only techniques for managing memory and resources.  In particular,
CPython primarily relies on reference counting, which has similarities
with *both* GC and deterministic destruction.

Now you know why I said that I don't know anybody who makes Jeff's
claim.  ;-)
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of     
indirection."  --Butler Lampson
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