A Safer OLE

September 1996 / International Features / A Better Foundation / A Safer OLE

Reference-counting errors are the number-one source of mistakes when programming to OLE interfaces," says Dominik Gruntz of Oberon Microsystems (Zurich). That's why the company implemented a technology called Safer OLE into its Direct-to-COM (DTC) Oberon compiler.
Reference counting is the standard object and memory management technique of COM, the underlying architecture of OLE 2.0. When C and C++ developers allocate or change pointers to COM objects, they have to administrate their reference manually via AddRef and Release methods. "Developers working with the Oberon/F framework don't need to worry about reference," Gruntz explains. "DTC automatically calls an object's AddRef and Release methods where needed. When a COM object is no longer used, it's automatically removed from memory."

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Matthew Wilson
My approach to software engineering is far more pragmatic than it is theoretical--and no language better exemplifies this than C++.

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