[pjmlp]

The thing is, ARC is a garbage collection algorithm.

There isn't anything like ARC vs GC, that is layman knowledge and just wrong from CS point of view.

[hamstergene]

ARC is not an algorithm, it a language-level feature that generates retain/release calls automatically so that the programmer does not have to. Unlike GC systems where the resulting program does run an algorithm (and wastes CPU on that), with ARC the generated program is no different as if retain/release were written manually and runs no extra code.

[pjmlp]

That is an implementation detail of how a reference counting algorithm can be implemented.

[jblow]

If you're going to say that, then hand-coded memory allocation is just an implementation detail for a garbage collection algorithm.

True in some sense, but mostly useless. Come on.