Python vs Java garbage collection?

["Martin v. Löwis"]

maney at pobox.com wrote:
>>People often extend this rationale to "your computer has infinite 
>>resources". Closing a file is then not necessary since you can have as 
>>many open files as you want to, and finalizers wouldn't be needed for that.
> 
> However, this sort argument won't get you very far when the external
> resource is something like a write lock on a shared data store!

Indeed. That's why, a write lock shouldn't be released in a finalizer, 
but in a explicit release operation. Finalizers are only good for 
resources where your program would behave correctly if you had unlimited 
supply and no finalizers would be called.

Regards,
Martin