Azathoth, that might be true BUT, there's no accessible variable that contains the address to the child.
But I think I get it. If you kill the parent the child is still there, although not accessible since there's no variable with its address. Since the child still refers to the parent and the parent still refers to the child they stay referenced. Even though they're not accessible in code anymore, their "memories" live on in memory.
Even so, shouldn't the garbage collector free the memory of variables that have become inaccessible?
But I think I get it. If you kill the parent the child is still there, although not accessible since there's no variable with its address. Since the child still refers to the parent and the parent still refers to the child they stay referenced. Even though they're not accessible in code anymore, their "memories" live on in memory.
Even so, shouldn't the garbage collector free the memory of variables that have become inaccessible?