Proper use of the IDisposable interface

Question

I know from reading the Microsoft documentation that the \"primary\" use of the IDisposable interface is to clean up unmanaged resources.

To me, \"unman

Answer 1

One problem with most discussions of "unmanaged resources" is that they don't really define the term, but seem to imply that it has something to do with unmanaged code. While it is true that many types of unmanaged resources do interface with unmanaged code, thinking of unmanaged resources in such terms isn't helpful.

Instead, one should recognize what all managed resources have in common: they all entail an object asking some outside 'thing' to do something on its behalf, to the detriment of some other 'things', and the other entity agreeing to do so until further notice. If the object were to be abandoned and vanish without a trace, nothing would ever tell that outside 'thing' that it no longer needed to alter its behavior on behalf of the object that no longer existed; consequently, the 'thing's usefulness would be permanently diminished.

An unmanaged resource, then, represents an agreement by some outside 'thing' to alter its behavior on behalf of an object, which would useless impair the usefulness of that outside 'thing' if the object were abandoned and ceased to exist. A managed resource is an object which is the beneficiary of such an agreement, but which has signed up to receive notification if it is abandoned, and which will use such notification to put its affairs in order before it is destroyed.