<HTML>
<TITLE>
The java::autolock Command
</TITLE>
<BODY>
<HR>
<H3>
The java::autolock Command
</H3>
<HR>
<DL>
<H3>
Usage:
</H3>
<DD><B>java::autolock</B> ?<I>activate</I>?
<P>
The <B>java::autolock</B> command will halt garbage collection for
every Java object that is reflected inside the Tcl interpreter.
In normal operation, a reference to a Java object needs
to be assigned to a Tcl variable otherwise it will garbage collected.
In some cases, one might want to interactively call methods on java
objects without the extra step of assigning results to variables.
If you want to enable such functionality call the
<B>java::autolock</B> command with no arguments or with the optional
<I>activate</I> argument set to 1. Activating the auto locking feature
will keep java object references from being garbage collected. You
can deactivate the auto locking feature by calling the
<B>java::autolock</B> command with the <I>activate</I> argument set to 0.
When autolocking is deactivated, all auto locked java references will be
garbage collected unless the reference had been assigned to a variable.
<P>
When auto locking is enabled you will notice a significant slowdown.
This is a direct result of the overhead required to implement auto
locking. This should not matter for interactive sessions, but scripts
run with auto locking activated will be a lot slower. For this
reason (and others which are harder to explain) you should never
use the <b>java::autolock</b> command in a finished script. The
auto locking feature should only be used in an interactive session.
<P>
</DL>
<PRE>
<A HREF="../license.html">Copyright</A> © 1997-1998 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
</PRE>
</BODY>
</HTML>