[omniORB] Crash on using nil reference

[Stephen Crawley]

> >There is a flaw in this.  The memory manager cannot reallocate the
> >memory associated with a pointer when its reference count reaches zero.
> >If it did, you would find that pointers to now dead objects would spring
> >back into life, pointing at different objects.
> 
> Yes, this can happen in theory.
> 
> >This defeats your
> >checking.
> 
> No, it only defeats it in the 0.0001% of cases when it actually happens. You
> need all the following to run into this problem:

I think it occurs in 99.9999% of cases!

[Actually I don't, but I'm just pointing out that pulling an implausible
probability out of the air doesn't add any weight to your arguments.  Quite
the reverse in fact!!]

Anyway, I'd prefer to NOT see this sort of stuff added to OmniORB.  I'd
prefer to see people learn to use a tool like Rational's Purify which:

  * finds memory management problems in a far much more reliable and
    comprehensive fashion,

  * has zero runtime overhead if you don't use it, and 

  * doesn't entail the OmniORB developers in writing and maintaining
    a bunch of extra runtime and/or IDL generator code.

-- Steve