This is the mail archive of the guile@cygnus.com mailing list for the guile project.

Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]

Re: cons expensive? (was Re: DHARMI project)


Eric Buddington writes:
> On Mon, 3 Aug 1998, Christian Lynbech wrote:
> 
> > This is precisely the problem with mark/sweep collectors, as I
> > understand it. The effort is proportional to *all* the data, dead as
> > well as alive.
> 
> If you know that some data is 'dead' before the GC runs, though, I imagine
> that its space can be re-used, thus reducing the volume of the 'all the
> data' that needs checking. For example, a thousand serial 
> allocate/deallocate cycles can all use the same memory space. Ought to
> reduce swapping, too.

mark-sweep with compaction or copying GCs make all this a bunch of
this easier, but with the garbage collector guile uses things are
hard.

I wonder sometimes if the decision to use a conservative GC will
ultimately prove to be optimal...

.pm