Getting Up to Speed with ARC

Automated reference counting (ARC) offers a new compiler feature for your iOS projects. Introduced by way of LLVM (llvm.org), ARC simplifies memory management by automating the way objects are retained and released. By handling your memory for you, ARC allows you to focus your effort on code semantics, reducing the time and overhead you devote to thinking about memory management issues.

The problems with this in practice are as follows. First, most experienced iOS developers already use memory management almost reflexively. They don’t have to plan when to retain an object, and when to autorelease it—it’s something that comes out of years of patterned responses. Second, ARC has yet to fully stabilize. Apple is still working on adding features as this chapter is being written, even though initial technical specifications have been published (http://clang.llvm.org/docs/AutomaticReferenceCounting.html).