[jim_kaiser]

I think you are a little confused as to how exactly ARC works. ARC is mostly compile-time and adds the memory management code automatically during compile time. So, the runtime overhead compared to a GC is much lower.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7874342/what-is-the-diffe...

Regarding reference cycles, it is not a difficult job at all for any decent coder to work it out. It is a design issue in your application if you think its hard.

If you use protocols and delegates correctly, you can manage it quite simply with the rule of storing delegates as weak pointers.

If you use blocks, you just have to avoid the case of both storing a block in an object and referencing the object from the block.

I had not used a Mac till about 6 months ago and in the last 6 months, I lead the development of an enterprise scale app for iOS dealing with the above issues quite easily by having a good architecture. I have previously worked professionally for around 4 years with Qt/C++ and found it extremely easy to make the switch to iOS IMHO.

[flatline3]

I'm not confused as to how ARC works. Reference counting systems require a high level of bookkeeping for short lived objects as compared to GC systems.

Dealing with cycles is not complex, but it is error prone, verbose, and difficult in aggregate as compared to having cycles correctly and automatically handled.