14.1. Eligibility for Garbage Collection

In an ActionScript program, an object becomes eligible for garbage collection as soon as it becomes unreachable. An object is unreachable when it cannot be accessed directly or indirectly through at least one garbage collection root. The most significant garbage collection roots in ActionScript are as follows:

• Package-level variables

• Local variables of a currently executing method or function

• Static variables

• Instance variables of the program's main class instance

• Instance variables of an object on the Flash runtime display list

• Variables in the scope chain of a currently executing function or method