[Chicken-users] Finalizers

[John Cowan]

Either I seriously don't understand finalizers or else they don't
work in simple cases.  Here's a log:

Version 2, Build 320 - windows-cygwin-x86 - [ dload ptables applyhook ]
(c)2000-2006 Felix L. Winkelmann
#;1> (define x '(1 2 3))
#;2> (define (yammer x) (print x " is dead"))
#;3> (set-finalizer! x yammer)
(1 2 3)
#;4> (gc #t)
157812
#;5> (define x #f)
#;6> (gc #t)
157812
#;7>

Why is nothing reclaimed, and why isn't "(1 2 3) is dead" printed?

-- 
John Cowan   address@hidden   http://ccil.org/~cowan
I must confess that I have very little notion of what [s. 4 of the British
Trade Marks Act, 1938] is intended to convey, and particularly the sentence
of 253 words, as I make them, which constitutes sub-section 1.  I doubt if
the entire statute book could be successfully searched for a sentence of
equal length which is of more fuliginous obscurity. --MacKinnon LJ, 1940