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From the ASAP dissertation (https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-908.pdf):

> Reference counting, like asap, is a safe, synchronous memory management strategy. However, rc approximates waste by unreachability which is less timely than asap’s approximation by Access.

I think a more careful reading of the work is required to distinguish the precise meanings of "unreachability" and "access" in this context.



As I understand it:

- unreachability means there's no live reference to that object. - access means somebody is going to use this object again. If you have a live reference but won't ever use it again it's a kind of leak (that's how GCed languages can leak memory without any manual management).




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