[jancsika]

> Classes as a means of lifetime management

Wrt plugin systems: at least as the class level, are classes really a means of lifetime management in practice?

IIRC, audio plugin APIs follow the shell command pattern of memory management for loading new classes-- the user dynamically loads a library into a running instance of an application, and there it stays until the application exits.

And even if plugin systems as implemented are actually unloading classes, the user is almost always just restarting the app to make sure it took. :)

Edit: clarification