On Sep 1, 2006, at 9:21 PM, der Mouse wrote:

>> I'm not that fond of retain/release, because the words don't feel  
>> like
> inverses of one another to me; if I wanted an antonym to "retain" I'd
> probably pick "discard".  hold/release seems better to me, or
> hold/drop.  I've also written code using ref/deref.

re-tain (verb): 1. to keep in possession or use

re-lease (verb): 1. to set free; to let go; to dismiss

Those seem to match exactly.  "discard" has such a negative ring to  
it :-)

-- thorpej