REFERENCE COUNTING

Domain	Definition
Computing	Reference counting A garbage collection technique where each memory cell contains a count of the number of other cells which point to it. If this count reaches zero the cell is freed and its pointers to other cells are followed to decrement their counts, and so on recursively. This technique cannot cope with circular data structures. Cells in such structures refer (indirectly) to themselves and so will never have a zero reference count. This means they would never be reclaimed, even when there are no references from outside the structure. (1995-02-22). Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Specialty Definition: Reference counting

In computer science, a garbage collection technique where each memory cell contains a count of the number of other cells which point to it. If this count reaches zero the cell is freed and its pointers to other cells are followed to decrement their counts, and so on recursively.

This technique cannot cope with circular data structures. Cells in such structures refer (indirectly) to themselves and so will never have a zero reference count. This means they would never be reclaimed, even when there are no references from outside the structure. This article (or an earlier version of it) contains material from FOLDOC, used with permission.

Anagrams: REFERENCE COUNTING

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "c-c-e-e-e-e-f-g-i-n-n-n-o-r-r-t-u"
	-3 letters: reencountering.
	-4 letters: rencountering.
	-5 letters: concentering, conferencing, encountering, incongruence, interference, recentrifuge, reconnecting.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Alternative Orthography: REFERENCE COUNTING

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

52 45 46 45 52 45 4E 43 45 43 4F 55 4E 54 49 4E 47

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01010010 01000101 01000110 01000101 01010010 01000101 01001110 01000011 01000101 00100000 01000011 01001111 01010101 01001110 01010100 01001001 01001110 01000111

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#82 &#69 &#70 &#69 &#82 &#69 &#78 &#67 &#69 &#32 &#67 &#79 &#85 &#78 &#84 &#73 &#78 &#71

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0052 0045 0046 0045 0052 0045 004E 0043 0045 0043 004F 0055 004E 0054 0049 004E 0047

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

REFERENCE COUNTING

Specialty Definition: REFERENCE COUNTING

Computing