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Re: GUILE's GC - why we struggling to solve already solved problems ? (was Re: finding the top of the stack in linux)


Marius> While Guile's GC is technically a conservative GC because it
Marius> scans certain memory areas for possible pointers, it is in
Marius> fact mostly precise.  Do you think the Boehm GC can be as
Marius> efficient even when it is completely conservative?

You can use the Boehm GC in a partially precise mode.  That is what we
do for libgcj.

Marius> In general, my view is that the GC of Guile is in fact an area
Marius> where significant improvements can be made, but I see these
Marius> improvements mostly in the direction of using more `modern'
Marius> variants of GC than mark/sweep, like generational collectors,
Marius> and mostly copying ones.  I would regard switching to a purely
Marius> conservative GC as a step in the wrong direction.

You aren't describing the Boehm GC here.  It also has generational
capability.  Boehm is working on making it concurrent as well.

Marius> In any case, we could probably raid it for useful portability
Marius> code, like code for finding the stack boundaries, if it
Marius> contains something like that.

It does have this.  Be prepared to track bug fixes if you go this
route, though.

Tom

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