Chapter 4. Lifecycle Management

Traditionally, most defects in implementation that aren't business logic-specific can be traced back to memory management and object lifecycle issues. These defects include memory leaks, cyclic reference counts, the failure to release an object, the failure to free allocated memory, accessing already de-allocated objects, accessing not yet allocated memory or objects, and so on. Writing impeccable code is possible, but it takes years of experience, iron discipline, a mature development process, commitment to quality from management, and strict coding and development standards, such as code reviews and quality control. Most software organizations today lack most of these ingredients. To cope with this reality, .NET aims at simplifying component development to bridge the skill gap and increase the quality of the resulting code. .NET relieves developers of almost all the burden of memory allocation for objects, memory de-allocation, and object lifecycle management. This chapter describes the .NET solution for memory and object lifecycle management and its implications for the programming model, including the pitfalls and workarounds that component developers need to apply.