Comment Re:Convoluted result of mental illness. (Score 1) 55
No, reference counting is absolutely not required for heap allocation. The main heap-allocated type provided by the standard library is Box, which is analogous to a non-nullable `std::unique_ptr` in C++: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/...
Yes, the pointed-to object is cleaned up when the `box` itself leaves scope, but that doesn't require reference counting.