Basic COM reference-count aliases — 2026-09-22

Pass-5 #5 calls for shared COM AddRef/Release implementations and generated per-interface dispatch. DirectMusic still duplicated the basic DxObject counter operations; AMMultiMediaStream and GammaControl delegated through private DirectMusic wrappers rather than the existing canonical endpoints.

Six api_table.json entries now select dx_com_addref or dx_com_release_basic. The generated dispatch changes accordingly, and all six private wrappers are removed. Shell Link and IPersistFile's two direct AddRef callers now call the canonical AddRef endpoint too. Their specialized shell_link_release teardown remains unchanged. No DirectPlay, surface, texture, device, storage or callback-owning release was generalized here.

The shared basic release stores the decremented count before final dx_free; the removed DirectMusic implementation only stored it on a non-final release. There is no interface-specific teardown between that store and slot retirement. The tests verify observable live-reference counts and final retirement.

Verification:

• test-directmusic-query-interface.js: 42 passed, including 18 new lifecycle checks. All six API IDs run through dispatch_api_table, not direct helper calls: initial reference 1, AddRef 2/3, Release 2/1/0, exactly eight bytes of stdcall cleanup, and restored live-object count. Metadata assertions retain the six aliases. Existing full-GUID rejection, QI-owned references, factory aggregation/error paths and lifetime tests pass.
• test-am-multimedia-stream.js: creation/probe/release passes; the test's release now also uses generated dispatch rather than a removed wrapper.
• test-directdraw-gamma-ramp.js: shared gamma-ramp state passes.
• test-shell-link-com.js: Shell Link/IPersistFile persistence passes.
• Generator freshness, append-only API IDs, metadata generation, handler cleanup and silent-handler gates pass. Quiet inventory stays 249 + 22.
• Fragment balance, logical operands, tier discovery and whitespace pass. The exact-duplicate baseline tightens from 138 groups / 532 members to 135 / 524. Removed members are the six deleted wrappers, the now-singleton Lobby2 Release, and the already-implemented GetPrivateProfileStructA; no new duplicate is allowed by this update.

This addresses these remaining basic-counter copies, not all COM reference counting. Specialized teardown, controlling-IUnknown identity and concurrent AddRef/Release correctness remain separate contracts. No browser or performance benchmark was performed; tests use the shared worktree.

DirectPlay follow-up — 2026-09-22

Three more entries now use the same generated-dispatch mechanism: IDirectPlay3_AddRef, IDirectPlayLobby2_AddRef and IDirectPlayLobby2_Release. Their private implementations are removed. IDirectPlay3_Release remains specialized: final release calls dp_close_owner before retiring the object, including owned-message cleanup. The Lobby implementation being replaced had no corresponding owned teardown.

test-directplay4.js now exercises two AddRefs and two balancing non-final Releases through actual COM vtable thunks, before and after upgrading each object: DirectPlay3A/4A and Lobby2A/3A. All 16 new calls check return counts and exact stdcall cleanup. Existing final-release calls still pass. Metadata assertions guard the three shared endpoints and specialized DirectPlay Release. The query-interface and queue tests no longer call removed implementations; they select the relevant API ID through generated dispatch instead.

Verification passed: the 53-slot DirectPlay4 and 19-slot Lobby3 ABI suite, message queue/Receive/count/non-final and final-release cleanup suite, and 31 QueryInterface/factory/lifetime checks. API IDs, generator freshness, fragment balance, handler cleanup, logical operands, tier discovery and whitespace passed. The duplicate ratchet tightens from 135 groups / 524 members to 134 / 522, removing just the two deleted AddRef members.

This is shared implementation, not new networking behavior or a concurrency fix. No callback, session, player, transport or message-queue implementation was changed, and no native Win98, browser or performance run is claimed.