Why doesn’t C++ have a garbage collector?

Implicit garbage collection could have been added in, but it just didn’t make the cut. Probably due to not just implementation complications, but also due to people not being able to come to a general consensus fast enough.

A quote from Bjarne Stroustrup himself:

I had hoped that a garbage collector which could be optionally enabled would be part of C++0x, but there were enough technical problems that I have to make do with just a detailed specification of how such a collector integrates with the rest of the language, if provided. As is the case with essentially all C++0x features, an experimental implementation exists.

There is a good discussion of the topic here.

General overview:

C++ is very powerful and allows you to do almost anything. For this reason it doesn’t automatically push many things onto you that might impact performance. Garbage collection can be easily implemented with smart pointers (objects that wrap pointers with a reference count, which auto delete themselves when the reference count reaches 0).

C++ was built with competitors in mind that did not have garbage collection. Efficiency was the main concern that C++ had to fend off criticism from in comparison to C and others.

There are 2 types of garbage collection…

Explicit garbage collection:

C++0x will have garbage collection via pointers created with shared_ptr

If you want it you can use it, if you don’t want it you aren’t forced into using it.

You can currently use boost:shared_ptr as well if you don’t want to wait for C++0x.

Implicit garbage collection:

It does not have transparent garbage collection though. It will be a focus point for future C++ specs though.

Why Tr1 doesn’t have implicit garbage collection?

There are a lot of things that tr1 of C++0x should have had, Bjarne Stroustrup in previous interviews stated that tr1 didn’t have as much as he would have liked.

Related Posts:

  1. What is a lambda expression in C++11?
  2. ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture x86_64 error
  3. What is the ‘override’ keyword in C++ used for? [duplicate]
  4. What is a smart pointer and when should I use one?
  5. Meaning of = delete after function declaration
  6. C++ std::priority_queue uses the lambda expression
  7. Usage and Syntax of std::function
  8. What exactly is nullptr?
  9. Difference between `constexpr` and `const`
  10. Split a string using C++11
  11. How to create timer events using C++ 11?
  12. What does T&& (double ampersand) mean in C++11?
  13. Segmentation fault error 11 C++
  14. Compiling C++11 with g++
  15. terminate called after throwing an instance of ‘std::invalid_argument’ what(): stoi
  16. What exactly is std::atomic?
  17. Issue with std::stol – ‘std::invalid_argument’ what(): stol
  18. terminate called after throwing an instance of ‘std::out_of_range’
  19. Cleanest way to copy a constant size array in c++11
  20. push_back vs emplace_back
  21. undefined reference to ‘std::cout’
  22. What is move semantics?
  23. expression preceding parentheses of apparent call must have (pointer-to-) function type
  24. C++ error: Undefined symbols for architecture x86_64
  25. C++ terminate called without an active exception
  26. Thread pooling in C++11
  27. How does std::forward work? [duplicate]
  28. Does C++ have a Garbage Collector?
  29. Difference in make_shared and normal shared_ptr in C++
  30. What is std::move(), and when should it be used?
  31. C++: std does not have member “string”
  32. push_back vs emplace_back
  33. error: use of deleted function
  34. Call to implicitly deleted copy constructor in LLVM
  35. cc1plus: error: unrecognized command line option “-std=c++11” with g++
  36. error C2679: binary ‘<<' : no operator found which takes a right-hand operand of type 'std::string' (or there is no acceptable conversion)
  37. no match for ‘operator<<’ in ‘std::operator
  38. Warning: non-static data member initializers only available with -std=c++11 or -std=gnu++11?
  39. Use the auto keyword in C++ STL
  40. Call to non-static member function without an object argument compiler error
  41. Does C++11 have C#-style properties?
  42. Iterator Loop vs index loop
  43. initialize a vector to zeros C++/C++11
  44. When is it safe to call this-> in constructor and destructor
  45. How to memset char array with null terminating character?
  46. How well is Unicode supported in C++11?
  47. How to automatically convert strongly typed enum into int?
  48. Why should I use a pointer rather than the object itself?
  49. too many initializers for ‘int [0]’ c++
  50. overloaded function with no contextual type information
  51. Creating folders in C++
  52. convert string to size_t
  53. Compiling C++11 with g++
  54. ERROR C2039: ‘vector’: is not a member of ‘std’
  55. Does static constexpr variable inside a function make sense?
  56. c++ vector bubble sort
  57. How to use bitmask?
  58. Differences between unique_ptr and shared_ptr
  59. g++ ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture x86_64
  60. Making my own toString() method on c++ struct
  61. Struct Constructor in C++?
  62. What is meant with “const” at end of function declaration? [duplicate]
  63. error: lvalue required as unary & operand
  64. What is use of c_str function In c++
  65. Is there a decent wait function in C++?
  66. C++ – No matching member function for call to ‘push_back’
  67. error: lvalue required as unary & operand
  68. C/C++ JSON parser
  69. C++ request for member ‘’ in ‘’, which is of non-class type ‘’
  70. Using O_RDWR vs O_RDONLY | O_WRONLY
  71. How to implement the factory method pattern in C++ correctly
  72. c++ array – expression must have a constant value
  73. getline() does not work if used after some inputs
  74. Passing a 2D array to a C++ function
  75. ‘typeid’ versus ‘typeof’ in C++
  76. Fatal error: iostream: No such file or directory in compiling C program using GCC
  77. Undefined reference to class constructor, including .cpp file fixes
  78. Deleting a dynamically allocated 2D array
  79. How to add element to C++ array?
  80. Difference of keywords ‘typename’ and ‘class’ in templates?
  81. Error: Jump to case label in switch statement
  82. What is the preferred way to include error messages in C++?
  83. How to Convert a C++ String to Uppercase
  84. C++ Fractions Class
  85. #pragma once vs include guards?
  86. Reference to non-static member function must be called
  87. How can I assign an array from an initializer list?
  88. I get this error: “glibc detected”
  89. How can I get and use the header file in my C++ program?
  90. cin.eof() functionality
  91. Implementing a tree in C++
  92. got “cannot appear in a constant-expression” when using template
  93. C++ ostream and ofstream conversions
  94. C++ discards qualifiers
  95. What is the source of the data for the ProgramFiles, ProgramW6432Dir, ProgramFilesDir (x86), CommonProgramFiles environment variables?
  96. C++ : Exception occurred in script: basic_string::_S_construct NULL not valid
  97. Does WPF Work with C++?
  98. Multiple inputs on one line
  99. Why do I get: -9223372036854775808
  100. Getting the error floating point exception: 8

Leave a Comment

error code: 523