iv class="block"><i>since 1.7.
             Just use <code>WeakReference</code> directly.
 Note that in ant1.7 is parent was changed to extend HardReference.
 This is because the latter has access to the (package scoped)
 WeakishReference(Object) constructor, and both that and this are thin
 facades on the underlying no-longer-abstract base class.</i></div>
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