Garbage collection in Mac OS X 10.5 can be faster than retain/release on multi-core systems. retain/release requires the code to obtain a lock, which is expensive. On multicore systems, libauto (the GC) can examine the heap before it pauses the thread so it knows what it's doing going in. And, if there are UI events in the queue, it'll abort it's job and wait for the next idle time. It's probably the most advanced GC on the market.
Does this mean anyone who develops api addons for Objective C will need to develop two versions?
No, if you actually examine the Objective-C runtime in Tiger (available from Apple's open source downloads), you'll notice that the runtime will ignore retain/release/autorelease calls. (Runtime support was added in Tiger, the collector makes its debut in Leopard.)
by firestorm — Oct 20
Does this mean anyone who develops api addons for Objective C will need to develop two versions?
No, if you actually examine the Objective-C runtime in Tiger (available from Apple's open source downloads), you'll notice that the runtime will ignore retain/release/autorelease calls. (Runtime support was added in Tiger, the collector makes its debut in Leopard.)