[Python-checkins] r78559 - python/trunk/Doc/library/xml.dom.minidom.rst

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::
 
