Apple

In my app, I call AXUIElementCopyAttributeNames() and AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue() very frequently, but as far as I can see, the resulting objects are all properly released and ObjectAlloc and MallocDebug show no indication of possible leaks

In your code, do you call CFRelease() on the attribute names and the attribute value when you are finished with them? The convention for Core Foundation functions like these is that, if the function contains the word "copy," you are responsible for CFReleasing the object. This applies to the accessibility functions.

To be exact, I do it like this:

// -valueForAttributeCopy:

// Returns an object typed id representing the value for a given attribute of the receiver's AXUIElement or nil if the attribute doesn't exist.

// The sender is responsible for releasing the object.

- (id)valueForAttributeCopy:(CFStringRef)attribute

{

id value = nil;

id axValue = nil;

NSArray *attrNames;

if (AXUIElementCopyAttributeNames((CFTypeRef)_element, (CFArrayRef *)&attrNames) == kAXErrorSuccess)

{

if ( [attrNames indexOfObject:(NSString *)attribute] != NSNotFound && AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue((CFTypeRef)_element, attribute, (CFTypeRef *)&axValue) == kAXErrorSuccess )

value = axValue;

}

[attrNames release];

return value;

}

(where _element is an instance variable with an AXUIElementRef, stored in my AXUIElement wrapper class object.)

In the calling method, I compare the returned object against the value I'm looking for and then release it by calling [value release].

Do you think it is bad practice to cast CFTypeRefs to type id and releasing them this way?

As I mentioned, ObjectAlloc tells me that my app doesn't accumulate memory allocations, while the other app does.

Or am I wrong in that my app is not able (and not allowed) to retain objects in another app's memory space?

Peter