Re: Best Ref-counting algorithms?

George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> writes:




> If you're dead set on reference counting, you should investigate 1-bit
> reference counting. I don't have URL's to give you but they should be
> easy to find. The programming language is designed so that most data
> are not shared and then you only need a simple flag to say whether the
> item is shared and so needs special handling.


You can get most of the benefit of 1-bit reference counts by using
linear-type inference. Basically, at compile time you find objects that
you can statically guarantee will have only one use _and_ (most of the
time) code the reuse directly in the compiled code instead of putting
the objects on a free list for later reuse. Non-linear objects are
GC'ed normally.


Torben

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