ClutterActor checks, when destroying and reparenting, if the parent
actor implements the Container interface, and automatically calls the
remove() method to perform a clean removal.
Actors implementing Container, though, might have internal children;
that is, children that are not added through the Container API. It is
already possible to iterate through them using the Container API to
avoid breaking invariants - but calling clutter_actor_destroy() on
these children (even from the Container implementation, and thus outside
of Clutter's control) will either lead to leaks or to segmentation
faults.
Clutter needs a way to distinguish a clutter_actor_set_parent() done on
an internal child from one done on a "public" child; for this reason, a
push/pop pair of functions should be available to Actor implementations
to mark the section where they wish to add internal children:
➔ clutter_actor_push_internal ();
...
clutter_actor_set_parent (child1, parent);
clutter_actor_set_parent (child2, parent);
...
➔ clutter_actor_pop_internal ();
The set_parent() call will automatically set the newly added
INTERNAL_CHILD private flag on each child, and both
clutter_actor_destroy() and clutter_actor_unparent() will check for the
flag before deciding whether to call the Container's remove method.