Does compiling to javascript preclude dart adding weak references?

Question

I'm disappointed that dart doesn't feature weak references.

Is there something about compiling to a language which doesn't offer weak references which makes it impossible?

SLaks · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-14 22:50:49Z

1

Yes.

In order to support weak references, you need a way to interact with or override the GC.
That is fundamentally impossible in Javascript.

answered Jun 14, 2012 at 22:50

SLaks

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2 Comments

v_y Over a year ago

i'm not convinced. in the end, js is turing complete - as an extreme approach to supporting weak references, one could write a vm in js which implements memory management itself.

SLaks Over a year ago

True. I should have said that it's impossible to do that within the JS host environment.

Ladicek · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-15 15:38:00Z

1

Dart wants to compile to performant JavaScript. That's why it needs to skip certain features (tail calls, for example). And I'd even argue that weak references are a bad idea anyway.

answered Jun 15, 2012 at 15:38

Ladicek

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1 Comment

v_y Over a year ago

what do you dislike about weak references? i'd like to have them so that i can build an event system which doesn't easily lead to memory leaks. if event triggers could weakly reference their callbacks, this would be easier than diligently unbinding those triggers.

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