NSZone.md

NSZone

Legacy memory management structure in mulle-objc that provides zone-based memory allocation compatibility.

Functions

Zone Operations

• NSCreateZone - Creates new zone (returns NULL)
• NSRecycleZone - Frees zone (no-op)
• NSDefaultMallocZone - Gets default zone (returns NULL)

Memory Management

• NSZoneMalloc - Allocates memory in zone
• NSZoneCalloc - Allocates zeroed memory
• NSZoneRealloc - Reallocates memory
• NSZoneFree - Frees memory

Object Allocation

• NSAllocateObject - Allocates object in zone
• NSReallocateObject - Reallocates object
• NSDeallocateObject - Deallocates object

Usage Example

// Create zone (returns NULL)
NSZone *zone = NSCreateZone(1024, 128, YES);

// Allocate memory in zone
void *memory = NSZoneMalloc(zone, size);

// Reallocate memory in zone
void *newMemory = NSZoneRealloc(zone, memory, newSize);

// Free memory in zone
NSZoneFree(zone, memory);

// Object allocation
id object = NSAllocateObject(class, extraBytes, zone);

Important Notes

1. Compatibility

   • Legacy code support
   • API compatibility
   • Zero overhead

2. Memory Management

   • Standard allocation
   • Direct mapping
   • No zone overhead

3. Modern Code

   • Prefer standard allocation
   • Remove zone usage
   • Simplify interfaces

4. Best Practices

   • Use direct allocation
   • Minimize indirection
   • Optimize memory usage