Why is there still the problem with memory leak ?

Hansjuerg:

It is important to understand that Titanium is a proxy pseudo compiler for JavaScript that delegates some handling to both iOs and Android to end up doing the rest of the work. In Java which is a completely GarbageCollector Orientated Langage: you still need to have some precautions in order to avoid eating up all the memory. JavaScript is no exception. I found myself very frustrated at first with Titanium, but we have to realize that this is JavaScript doing fishy stuff, not Titanum; and we only realize it because finally we are working with limited specs devices instead of PCs and WebBrowsers.

I've come to realize that most of the problems posted in this forum are because people think of JavaScript as a poor wannabeC seudolanguage, when in fact its [almost] at Python's level, which is by far one of the most beautiful languages on earth :) If you wish to use Titanium but won't bother extending your JavaScript knowledge... it's bound to blow up in your face

Some key JavaScripts concepts that if you study further will help understand the management of memory:

• Prototype-Orientated

• Parasitic inheritance

• Dictionaries are prototype structs!! (and all Titanium objects take dictionaries as params)

• Garbage Collection in JavaScript

• Using commonJS and exports/require wisely (look for titanium require monkeypatch)

• Assignments ARE References (this is the C equivalent to the pointer of the object and not the object itself)

• Null assignment

• Deep Copy

• 'new' keyword

Finally some Titanium specific recommendations:

• include and require are not enemies, know when to use each one

• Avoid 'new' when possible, or the ghost instances will end up haunting you

• Know where to addListeners. in a Table you can add either 1 listener and search for the firing row, or add listeneres to every row... which turns into more objects, which feeds the GC...

• If you cling all your objects to a "memory cleaning", the GC will fail to detect it... and you have to do the cleaning yourself.

• Know your local resources: FireEvents with dictionaries attached, Titanium.App.Properties, sqlite, folders (including cache)

  • Know your folders: Resources, applicationDirectory, applicationSupportDirectory, externalStorageDirectoy, etc.

    • Cache what you can in folders that the user can dispose