Why do I have to call super -dealloc last, and not first?

Question

correct example:

- (void)dealloc {
    [viewController release];
    [window release];
    [super dealloc];
}

wrong example:

Answer 1

Here is actual example where [super dealloc] must be last, otherwise the call to removeFromRunLoop will cause crash. I'm not sure what happens inside NSOutputStream's removeFromRunLoop, but it seems to access 'self' in this case.

Setup:

[outputStream setDelegate:self];
[outputStream scheduleInRunLoop:[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop] forMode:NSDefaultRunLoopMode];

Dealloc:

- (void)dealloc {
    if (outputStream) {
        [outputStream close];
        [outputStream removeFromRunLoop:[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop]
                                forMode:NSDefaultRunLoopMode];
        [outputStream release];
        outputStream = nil;
    }
    delegate = nil;
    [super dealloc]; // must be last!
}