ephemeron

Definitions

1. Something short-lived or transitory.
2. A type of weak reference in a garbage collected programming language that does not permit an object to be kept alive by its finalizer.

Examples

“Ah!—so frail are we— So like⟳ the brief ephemeron that wheels Its momentary round, we scarce can weep⟳ Our own⟳ bereavements, ere we haste to share⟳ The clay with those we mourn.”

“Beyond type⟳ safety, OCaml has several features that closely interact with the garbage collector. These include⟳ weak references, finalisers, ephemerons, and lazy values, whose semantics will have⟳ to be preserved with the new GC so as to not break⟳ programs that use⟳ those features.”

CEFR level