Do I need to free these objects?

Question

I'm using Delphi 1 16-bit to learn Pascal (don't laugh, it works fine, plus I can't afford a more recent version). I'm using a TList to hold object references for a simple address book. Each object is added to the TList like so:

DataList.Add(TAddrBookData.Create('Bob', '1 Mill St'));

Do I need to free the TAddrBookData objects myself? Or are they freed when TList.Free is run?

Answer 1

You will need to free (or FreeAndNil) those as well.

If you want to learn Object Pascal (Delphi) with a newer (and free) IDE try Lazarus as the free Turbo Delphi 2006 has been discontinued (what a bad move).

Answer 2

You need to free them yourself. Later versions come with a TObjectList, which is like a TList except it will only accept objects and it has the option to take ownership and free them for you automatically when the list is freed. But I don't believe TObjectList existed in Delphi 1, so you'll have to take care of it manually.

Answer 3

My intention is to get a good grounding in OP before moving on to newer versions. While Delphi 1 is lacking in a few things it fits what I need right now. Once I have a solid foundation I'll look at a newer version (though the prices are killer).

One advantage to an older version is lots of features aren't available to me - this forces me to solve a problem with code alone.

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on this. I want to accept Masons reply as the answer but I don't see how. The outlined checkmarks aren't visible to me. I also can't edit my question. Maybe it's time to get an OpenID?

Thanks again,

Frank_M