Programmer's Reference
allInstances, basicAllInstances
- Note:
- allInstances is a Blue Book message. It is defined in IBM
Smalltalk to return all live instances of a class. Live
instances are those that are being referenced by another (referenced)
object, and so will not be reclaimed by the next pass of the garbage
collector. (Garbage collection is a Smalltalk process for
periodically identifying unreferenced objects and deallocating their
memory.) Sending allInstances usually forces a garbage
collection to ensure that only live instances are returned. The message
basicAllInstances is not in the Blue Book, but experience indicates
it is necessary. It is generally faster because it does not require the
garbage collection; however, all of the returned instances are not
guaranteed to exist.
- Porting tip:
- Neither Smalltalk/V nor Objectworks\Smalltalk supports
basicAllInstances, although Smalltalk/V does have a message with
similar semantics called allInstancesPrim. Smalltalk/V
supports allInstances. Objectworks\Smalltalk also
has a message named allInstances, but it has the semantics of
basicAllInstances.
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