[gclist] The FAQ

[David Chase]

FYI, thanks to the helpful proprietors of iecc, it is now located
at http://www.iecc.com/gclist/.

It would still be nice to deal with the public-domainness of
this information, if possible.  The helpful people at Harlequin
have also offered to host the GC FAQ, but their legal staff
is more paranoid than the legal staff at IECC, and would like
some assurance that it is ok for them to have a copy at their
site.

I've also received a copy of a book on garbage collection,
the exact name escapes me, but I've been reading it, and
it looks good, and will probably receive a plug on the FAQ
page.  They cover LOTS of stuff, in decent detail. Now,
if only someone could write such a book for compiler
optimization.  Sigh.  (I know of two attempts, one abandoned,
another in progress.  One difficulty is that some of the
basic algorithms often used are not mentioned in standard
algorithms textbooks.)

I have the following list of contributors:

David Gadbois <gadbois@cyc.com> 
Charles Fiterman <cef@geode.geodesic.com> 
David Chase <chase@centerline.com> 
Marc Shapiro <shapiro@prof.inria.fr> 
Kelvin Nilsen <kelvin@iastate.edu> 
Paul Haahr <haahr@netcom.com> 
Nick Barnes <nickb@harlequin.co.uk> 

If you guys are willing to place your contributions to the FAQ
in the public domain, that would be great.  If there's a problem,
I'll get back with the person from Harlequin, and see what they
say, perhaps something can be worked out.  I really have no
idea what is the "best" solution for Internet intellectual
property, and I do try to keep up with those things.

At least one of those addresses is out of date.
Also, one of the silly links is now a dangling pointer.

I never did see what I'd call a satisfactory resolution
to the finalization argument, thought the FAQ does need
to include short mention of "guardians" (speaking as the
provisional editor, those looked too complicated to me
to be worth whatever incremental benefit was claimed for
them).

David Chase