[binaryfinery]

I've written memory managers used in console games for the N64 (4Mb), PS2 (32Mb) and a complete memory tracking system for Unreal Engine 3 on XBox360 (OMG 512Mb).

I use MonoTouch for iOS development. Why? Because I can build complex object graphs without having to maintain, in my head or in external documentation, the acyclic version of the graph. In a GC language I can create graphs that are happily cyclic, and have every reason to be, and yet have them deallocated when the application nulls the last reference.

In a reference counted system that desires cyclic pointers, one or more of those pointers have to be chosen as non-reference-incrementing pointers - and likewise one must remember not to release them either.

Memory management in Objective-C (without GC) is no effort provided one is making applications with simple object interactions, such as the plethora of tree-based hierarchies. Reference counting is great for that.

So it could be that the OP is lazy, or it could be that they have experience with problems that you do not. If you believe that OP actually requires a lesson on the basic rules of reference counted memory management (since thats what you provided) then I suggest that you are underestimating the experience of your detractors, which in turn leads me to believe that you are overestimating yours.

[jamesg]

This is very well put. Much more insightful than my glib comments below. Thanks dude!