Chapter 15. Memory Management

Almost all modern programming languages allocate memory in two places: on the stack and on the heap. Memory allocated on the stack stores local variables, parameters, and return values, and is generally managed automatically by the operating system. Memory allocated on the heap, however, is treated differently by different languages. In C and C++, memory allocated on the heap is managed manually. In C# and Java, however, memory allocated on the heap is managed automatically.

While manual memory management has the advantage of being simple for runtimes to implement, it has drawbacks that tend not to exist in systems that offer automatic memory management. For example, a large percentage of bugs in C and C++ programs stem from using an object after it has been deleted (dangling pointers) or forgetting to delete an object when it is no longer needed (memory leaks).

The process of automatically managing memory is known as garbage collection. While generally more complex for runtimes to implement than traditional manual memory management, garbage collection greatly simplifies development and eliminates many common errors related to manual memory management.

For example, it is almost impossible to generate a traditional memory leak in C#, and common bugs such as circular references in traditional COM development simply go away.