[Python-checkins] r78559 - python/trunk/Doc/library/xml.dom.minidom.rst
andrew.kuchling
python-checkins at python.org
Mon Mar 1 20:45:21 CET 2010
Author: andrew.kuchling
Date: Mon Mar 1 20:45:21 2010
New Revision: 78559
Log:
#7637: update discussion of minidom.unlink() and garbage collection
Modified:
python/trunk/Doc/library/xml.dom.minidom.rst
Modified: python/trunk/Doc/library/xml.dom.minidom.rst
==============================================================================
--- python/trunk/Doc/library/xml.dom.minidom.rst (original)
+++ python/trunk/Doc/library/xml.dom.minidom.rst Mon Mar 1 20:45:21 2010
@@ -85,22 +85,12 @@
dom3 = parseString("<myxml>Some data</myxml>")
assert dom3.documentElement.tagName == "myxml"
-When you are finished with a DOM, you should clean it up. This is necessary
-because some versions of Python do not support garbage collection of objects
-that refer to each other in a cycle. Until this restriction is removed from all
-versions of Python, it is safest to write your code as if cycles would not be
-cleaned up.
-
-The way to clean up a DOM is to call its :meth:`unlink` method::
-
- dom1.unlink()
- dom2.unlink()
- dom3.unlink()
-
-:meth:`unlink` is a :mod:`xml.dom.minidom`\ -specific extension to the DOM API.
-After calling :meth:`unlink` on a node, the node and its descendants are
-essentially useless.
-
+When you are finished with a DOM tree, you may optionally call the
+:meth:`unlink` method to encourage early cleanup of the now-unneeded
+objects. :meth:`unlink` is a :mod:`xml.dom.minidom`\ -specific
+extension to the DOM API that renders the node and its descendants are
+essentially useless. Otherwise, Python's garbage collector will
+eventually take care of the objects in the tree.
.. seealso::
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