56. The RTVMM of claim 53 wherein the implementing step comprises the step: implementing a finalizer thread that is part of a real-time activity and is responsible for incrementally executing the finalizer methods associated with finalizee objects associated with the real-time activity and reachable from the "finalizees" pointer.
56. The RTVMM of claim 53 wherein the implementing step comprises the step: implementing a finalizer thread that is part of a real-time activity and is responsible for incrementally executing the finalizer methods associated with finalizee objects associated with the real-time activity and reachable from the "finalizees" pointer. 57. The RTVMM of claim 56 wherein the finalizer thread comprises the steps: causing a finalizer method associated with a finalizee object to be executed; causing the finalizee object to be removed from the associated finalizee list; causing the "activity pointer" field of the finalizee object to be overwritten with a reference to the allocating object; causing a "finalize object" bit in the "activity pointer" field of the finalizee object to be cleared indicating that the object has been finalized.