Thanks to all of you who responded to my thread on replacing
runFinalizersOnExit.

David Roden suggested using a Shutdown Hook.  Never having used one
before I put together a simple test program, (below), which seems to
work.  Have I made any mistakes in this?  Any pointers to improvements
would be helpful.

Thanks in advance,

rossum

// --- Begin Code ---

import java.lang.ref.WeakReference;

/**
* Testing Shutdown Hook
*/
public class HookTester {
   private double mSecret;

   public HookTester() {
       mSecret = Math.random();
       
       // Set up ShutdownHook in constructor
       ShutdownHook sdh = new ShutdownHook(
           new WeakReference<HookTester>(this));
       Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(new Thread(sdh));
   }
   
   public void dispose() {
       System.out.println("Running dispose()");
       mSecret = 0.0;
       System.out.println("Secret deleted.");
   }

   @Override
   protected void finalize() {
       System.out.println("Running finalize()");
       dispose();
   }

   class ShutdownHook implements Runnable {
       // Use a weak reference so as not to delay garbage collection.
       private WeakReference<HookTester> mWeakRef;
       
       public ShutdownHook(WeakReference<HookTester> wRef) {
           mWeakRef = wRef;
       }
       
       public void run() {
           if (mWeakRef.get() != null) {
               mWeakRef.get().dispose();
           }
       }
   }
   
   public static void main(String[] args) {
       HookTester ht = new HookTester();
       // ht.dispose() not explicitly called.
   }
}

// --- End Code ---