[SeanLuke]

I love Obj-C dearly. But Obj-C's reference counting scheme is, and always has been, much more cognitive load than a GC. In Java the above would be roughly:

    public myObject(Number aNumber) {
        someField = new SomeObject();
        someOtherField = aNumber;
        }

...and that's it. No dealloc, no forgetting to release, no forgetting to retain objects you hold onto, no trying to figure out how to handle cyclic references (or indeed if certain references are cyclic at all). Just set it and forget it.