Are ref cells like pointers in the sense that they reference data on the heap, and need to be explicitly deleted? All the examples I've seen online don't have explicit delete calls.
Are ref cells like pointers in the sense that they reference data on the heap, and need to be explicitly deleted?
No. F# runs on the CLR, which manages memory automatically via a garbage collector. Memory resources, even ones that use the heap, do not need explicit cleanup from the developer, and in fact, there is no mechanism by which you can explicitly delete a specific object.
Instead, the reference cell will become eligible for garbage collection when there are no more references to it. Sometime after that, it will get cleaned up automatically by the GC.
This is true for most types you generate in F#, as well, such as records, discriminated unions, classes, etc.