Assume we are using the Boehm GC library in some version of Perl and we have an object, $parent, that contains a reference to another object $child. For simplicity, assume that eventually, all other references to both objects are removed. When garbage collection hits, is $parent guaranteed to be destroyed before $child?

Based on the suggestion and the web page that it references, it sounded like this guarantee would not be retained. I hope I've jumped to the wrong conclusion here.

This along with the potential large delay in destructor firing would make destructors nearly useless which takes away one of the biggest advantages to OO, IMHO.