C H A P T E R  13

Garbage Collection

Java relies on garbage collection. A garbage collector removes unused objects from memory and lets your programs re-use memory rather than constantly grow. For very small programs, this constant growth doesn't matter much. However, even a program of fairly low complexity and scale can quickly chew through a lot of memory. Therefore, most programs really need some kind of garbage collection mechanism.

When they use many other languages, including C++, programmers have to manage memory themselves, writing code to remove objects from memory at the right time. Java frees developers from this problem. That's not to say that Java is better than C++. Both languages have their strengths and weaknesses. Many developers ...

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