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Closing banks

BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Programming/Closing banks

Blueapples(Posted 2007) [#1]
I have a method in a class I am writing that uses TBank and CreateBankStream to save data:

Method SaveToDB(db:Int)
	Local Bank:TBank
	Local Stream:TStream
	Local Str:String
		
	Bank = CreateBank(256)
	Stream = CreateBankStream(Bank)

	' WriteInt, WriteString, etc used to write data to the Stream

	SeekStream(Stream, 0)
	Str = ReadString(Stream, StreamSize(Stream))

	' Str is stored to the DB here
		
	CloseStream(Stream)
EndMethod


I have a few questions on my methodology here:

1. Do I need to destroy the TBank object or will the GC get it? There is no CloseBank() command so I assume that it will be deleted once it goes out of scope at the end of the method.

2. Is there a better way to get a string or equivalent pointer from a bank or stream than "Str = ReadString(Stream, StreamSize(Stream))"? This is passed into a DLL call to store it in the database.


CS_TBL(Posted 2007) [#2]
1:

bank=null, then let the garbage collector do its thing..

btw, for garbage 'n things I tend to put thee GCCollected() value on screen in some corner, then you know exactly when something's leaking away.


GfK(Posted 2007) [#3]
1:

bank=null

then let the garbage collector do its thing..
If the bank is created locally, you don't even need to do that.


CS_TBL(Posted 2007) [#4]
Behold:

If you send Self as 'extra' event (created locally in the class) to some hooked function, then bmax seems to be making a copy of it. If you don't NULL this created event you'll end up with a memleak the size of the Self object you were sending, each time you perform this sending of Self.

Took me the best part of a day to find out about this :P


Blueapples(Posted 2007) [#5]
The extent of my use for the TBank variable is the CreateBankStream call, so thus far I believe it will be freed correctly on leaving scope.


btw, for garbage 'n things I tend to put thee GCCollected() value on screen in some corner, then you know exactly when something's leaking away.



Looks like there is a GCCollect() function, but it says it actually runs the garbage collector. So that leads to a couple more questions: does the GC actually run without calling this? I hope so. Also, would calling this frequently cause problems?


CS_TBL(Posted 2007) [#6]
arf, yes, ofcourse I meant: GCMemAlloced()


Blueapples(Posted 2007) [#7]
This is sort of OT but I really like BMax's balance of features. I mean, on the surface it doesn't seem like there's a GC in there--but there is. I'm surprised every day at how good this stuff is.