Managed pointers

[jksmithiii]

Surely this has already been beaten on, but a pointer type with Initialize and Finalize operators. Of value or no?

[cdbc]

Hi
AFAICR 'AllocMem' initializes allocated memory to zeroes before returning it to you. ...And there's 'FreeMemAndNil', which deallocates mem sets the pointer to nil.

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. var
2.   ManagedMem = array of byte; // dynamic array
3. begin
4.   setlength(ManagedMem,100); // uninitialized
5.   ... use your lump of 100 bytes mem ...
6.   // since dynamic arrays are managed types,
7.   // this deallocates when going out of scope
8. end;
9.  

Otherwise, @Thaddy did something clever with 'SmartPointer', you'll have to search the forum for that...
Regards Benny

[jksmithiii]

Pointer types with implicit initialize and finalize when pointer goes in/out of scope. That's the built-in safety value. Could write a lib around that using pointer records I suppose.