Object references

Java objects are transferred to the COBOL program as local object references.

To prevent the Garbage Collector from removing the referenced objects, the VM registers all the transferred references.

The references are valid until a native method returns to Java. However, this is never the case with a COBOL main program. To release the resources required for the registration and to enable the Garbage Collector to remove the objects referenced by the object references, the references must therefore be released explicitly by the COBOL program (see section "Object references").

For object references, the TYPEDEF JCI-object is defined in the COPY element JCI-TYPEDEF.