System for automatic garbage collection using strong and weak encapsulated pointers
US5398334A · kind A · utility
44Cited by
8References
1Claims
0Family size
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Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 6, 1992 |
| Grant date | Mar 14, 1995 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 6, 2012 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY10S707/99957
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The present invention solves both the dangling pointer problem and the garbage collection problem in software systems. Safe object pointers are divided into strong and weak pointers. Strong pointers point to an object unless they are explicitly assigned a new value, set to null, or destroyed. Weak pointers point to an object as long as the object has not been destroyed. If an object is destroyed, the weak pointer effectively becomes null, thus allowing the breaking up of cycles of references in a computer memory.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.