6.06.2017 11:50 Stefan Salewski <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > [...] > But I was wondering, why for newly created objects ref count is not > just zero, so when the element is put into a container it is just > increased to one. > > So there must be a reason why it can not work this way. Of course when > ref count drops to zero the element is deleted. But when a newly > created element just has ref count zero, where is the problem? Let's consider a system where a newly created object has ref count zero. Assume that you have created an object but changed your mind and decided you want to delete it. g_object_unref() raises an assert if ref_count is not > 0. But OK, this assert would have to be removed. So having ref_count == 0 you can't delete the object because ref_count is already 0. Or if you allow ref_count to be decremented, as ref_count is of type guint it would become 0xFFFFFFFF rather than -1. Then assume that g_object_ref() was called once. The next balanced g_object_unref() would make the object deallocated. You would have to call g_object_ref() immediately after creating to make sure the object exists until you decide to deallocate it. With floating object you can (you have a choice): - ref/unref the object any number of times as long as the number of unrefs is never greater than the number of refs, - give an ownership to a container and forget the unref (the container will take care of it), - unref the object to delete it. It looks like a good design to me. Even if a better system can be designed I believe it would not be much better and therefore not worth reworking. Regards, Rafal _______________________________________________ gtk-list mailing list gtk-list@xxxxxxxxx https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gtk-list
