Company
Date Published
Author
Ketan Gupta, Harris Hancock
Word count
2849
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

The addition of the FinalizationRegistry API in Cloudflare Workers allows developers to request a callback when a JavaScript object is garbage-collected, which can be useful for managing external resources like memory allocated by WebAssembly. However, using it directly is not recommended due to its non-deterministic nature and potential risks. Instead, developers should use explicit resource management features like the `using` syntax and deterministic cleanup logic to manage critical resources safely and reliably. The Explicit Resource Management proposal provides a more predictable way to handle resources needing manual cleanup, and its adoption is expected to become widespread in the JavaScript ecosystem. While FinalizationRegistry may not be obsolete, it remains a valuable fallback for specific use cases where explicit disposal isn't practical. By using both ERM and FinalizationRegistry together, developers can create a more reliable foundation for managing memory across the JavaScript and WebAssembly boundary.