title: Objective-C Difference between setting nil and releasing
body: <p>I've learned that in <code>dealloc</code> you do <code>[object release];</code> but in <code>viewDidUnload</code> (in a UIViewController subclass) you do <code>self.object = nil</code>. What is really the difference because <code>self.object = nil</code> (we're assuming object is a <code>(nonatomic, retain)</code> property) retains <code>nil</code> (which does nothing) and then releases the old value and then the reference count is 0 right?</p>