[PyKDE] PyQt4 problems with underlying C/C++ objects [weird]

[Krystian Samp]

you are right guys, it just can not be solved in a better way. I think it
should be explained somewhere since this is not a trivial issue, is it?

cheers,
Krystian

2006/11/21, Giovanni Bajo <rasky at develer.com>:
>
> Krystian Samp wrote:
>
> >> It seems that when you create an item the python object holds a
> >> reference to it. However, if you assign that item to a hierarchy of
> >> items (for instance using setParentItem()) the python object loses
> >> (or you can say hands over) the reference. This reference still
> >> exists in the C/C++ level in the hierarchy but only there. So If you
> >> stop referencing to the parent of the item then the item itself will
> >> be destroyed as well. This is weird since you still have a python
> >> object representing the item but as I said it handed over the
> >> reference to the C/C++ layer. This is my observation and I think
> >> it's not a good behavior of PyQt since you actually have to think
> >> about C/C++ and the principle I've described.
>
> Well, you HAVE to know what C++ does anyway. If the C++-side thinks that
> the
> parent owns the ownership of the child, there is nothing PyQt can do to
> prevehent it. If the C++ side then destroys that item (because eg. the
> parent kills it), there's nothing PyQt can do to prevent the object from
> being deallocate. I'll give you a short example of what I mean:
>
> class Foo(QWidget):
>     def __init__(self, parent):
>          QWidget.__init__(self, parent)
>          self.bar = QWidget(self)
>
> f = Foo(None)
> b = f.bar
> del f
> # what about b?
>
> In this case, Python still holds a reference to "b", but the underlying
> QWidget in C++ has been destroyed because it was child of "f" and "f" was
> destroyed. There's nothing PyQt can do to prehevent this: on the contrary,
> it *exposes* this behaviour, which is the way QObject's ownership system
> works.
>
> In other words, you can't ignore this problem, you must know and
> understand
> QObject lifetime. You can't assume that, since you have a Python
> reference,
> the underlying object will stay alive forever.
> --
> Giovanni Bajo
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/pipermail/pyqt/attachments/20061121/fbb43021/attachment.html