[gclist] When to garbage collect

[JanFriso.Groote@cwi.nl]

I would like to know whether there exist references to papers
dealing with when to really do a Mark-Sweep garbage collection.
There are many moments when the system can decide to garbage
collect. However, to reduce overhead, a rule is used to
determine whether it is worthwhile to go through all the memory.
A (particularily bad) rule that I encountered in some
program is that only if less than 5 percent of the declared
memory is free, (i.e. not used, and no garbage), then
the process collects the garbage. A far improved
(and self invented) rule is that the garbage is collected
if there has been a growth of say 5% of the total
memory, with respect to the last garbage collection.

As I would expect such rules to be described in the literature,
I would very appreciate if somebody could provide me with pointers.

I would appreciate if you could send me your answers
directly (jfg@cwi.nl).

Thank you very much,
Jan Friso Groote (www.cwi.nl/~jfg)