Re: Best Ref-counting algorithms?

Christoffer LernC6 wrote:
>> It depends on what resources you want to collect, and what
>> implementation language you are choosing.
>
> I'm playing around with a ref-counting based (memory) GC for a
> language I have yet to construct.


But what language are you planning use for the implementation? If you
choose C++, then it is hard to find the root set. Suppose you create
object for use in your language; then global objects and those in th
stack should be registered somehow for the tracing, but those on the
heap should not, as the are live when they can be traced from the other.


Therefore, one candidate for C++ might be a conservative GC, which is
implemented in a layer between the platform and the language, trying to
find out a conservative estimate of dead pointers. That is, not
necessarily collecting all.


I'm looking at the C++ draft "n2798.pdf", ch. 20.8, and it does not seem
to provide a means to find the root set. There are some "smart pointer"
classes, which seems to be just ordinary reference counts.


Anyway, even if you do not plan to use C++, perhaps it gives some input.


      Hans

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