Method for automatic system resource reclamation for object-oriented

Abstract

In object-oriented systems, non-memory resources are both managed by objects and represented as objects. If an object managing or representing non-memory resources becomes unreferenced, the non-memory resources managed by that object are lost from the system. This invention provides, as a part of a garbage collection process that automatic recovers memory resources of unreferenced objects, a last-will method that is invoked for unreachable objects that have provided a method named 'finalize.' All unreachable objects that have a last will method are put on a list. A separate process is scheduled to run each last-will method on its object in the list. Objects that have become reachable as a consequence of the last-will method are preserved. The memory resources associated with objects that have remained unreachable after the execution of the last-will method are recovered. In this way both memory and non-memory resources are preserved for re-use.