Happy to see you here Ron,
I have just found the following in David Flanagan's Java in a Nutshell, 1.4ed, p 99.
The garbage collector can also detect and destroy cycles of objects that refer to each other, but are not referenced by any other objects. Any such cycles are also reclaimed.
The JVM Spec (beginning of Chap 3) states:
For example, the memory layout of run-time data areas, the garbage-collection algorithm used, and any internal optimization of the Java virtual machine instructions (for example, translating them into machine code) are left to the discretion of the implementor.
And a little later:
Heap storage for objects is reclaimed by an automatic storage management system (known as a garbage collector); objects are never explicitly deallocated. The Java virtual machine assumes no particular type of automatic storage management system, and the storage management technique may be chosen according to the implementor's system requirements.
So an implementation of the JVM
does not have to implement any GC at all. So the JAVA OS for Lego Mindstorms RSX block is conformant in this repect.
-Barry
[ September 08, 2002: Message edited by: Barry Gaunt ]
[ September 08, 2002: Message edited by: Barry Gaunt ]