[gclist] Fast-allocating non-copying GC's

[David Ungar]

Paul, thanks for the kind words (not repeated here for the sake of brevity).


I really agree with you:


> "I think it's worth deciding whether we're talking about languages like
> C++ and Modula-3 or languages like Smalltalk, etc., and making that explicit.
> Otherwise hidden assumptions will tend to creep in."  Actually it's
> tougher than than---it depends on environments (standalone or program
> development?  File-based or persistent?).  And I find that the assumptions
> creep around in my own mind while I'm not looking.
>



>
>WRT the FAQ, this is tricky stuff.  I find it frustrating how hard it
>is to express the subtleties of "picking a winner" in the GC sweepstakes
>without overstressing some point or other.  Bleah.  On the other hand,
>the FAQ can only do good, given the current popular understanding.
>(Maybe we can get some people to replace their reference counters with
>*something* better.)
>

Yes. Both you and David Chase have done me a service by reminding
me that in C-land, you don't always have GC sync'ed up with the optimizer,
and that you have to coexist with hostile code, thereby making a
relocating collector problematical.

- Dave

-- Dave