On Garbage Collection [djg30]

[David Garfield]

The issue of garbage collection has now been brought up.

I hope to end it now.

Garbage Collection is an excuse to be sloppy.

In a kernel, or in anything important, you should be precise, not
sloppy.  If there is ever a time in which the we have lost all
pointers to a block, but not freed it, we have done something wrong.
To attempt to garbage collect it would just cover the problem up, and
it would come back and bite us, over, and over, and over again.

Lets not even consider garbage collection for the kernel or any core
classes.

Garbage collection for specific applications I have no objection to,
and this exists now, so it may continue.

The rule should be: any process (or kernel) that other processes
depend on must be precise and correct.

Comments?  Disagreements?

--David

-- 
David Garfield/2250 Clarendon Blvd/Arlington, VA 22201   (703)522-9416
Email: david%davgar@uunet.uu.net or garfield@verdi.sra.com