Python 2.0
Graham Matthews
graham at sloth.math.uga.edu
Fri Jun 4 10:45:04 EDT 1999
Graham Matthews wrote:
> Why is it so hard for people to see that adding a mark sweep collector
> *ON TOP OF* the existing ref count scheme essentially changes nothing.
> All the current ref count behaviour that people love will stay. The
> only additional behaviour will be that circular refs are mopped up
> correctly.
Vladimir Marangozov (Vladimir.Marangozov at inrialpes.fr) wrote:
: Why don't you try implementing it?
: There's nothing more convincing than good working code.
:
: If you try, I suspect that not we, but you'll realize that it's not so
: immediate and that there would be other additional effects, either
: inacceptable or undesirable.
How does one respond to the above? The old "I suspect" line. Well I don't
suspect because:
a) many many languages have garbage collection outlined exactly as I
have proposed and they all work just fine.
b) I work on a product which pretty much does exaclty what I outlined
for a collection scheme, and it works beautifully. Moreover it contains
many similarites with Python (the need to interface to C, complex
objects, etc).
c) I have implemented 3 collectors in my "coding life", so I have some
experience.
You on the other hand just "suspect that I will realise that it's not so
immediate"? Do you have any basis for these suspicions? For example have
you ever implemented a reference counting mark sweep collector, maybe
with colouring.
I am sorry to sound sooo sarcastic, but what can I reply to "I suspect ...".
I put up facts, and you put up "I suspect ..."
:
graham
--
A cat named Easter
He say "will you ever learn"
Its just an empty cage girl
If you kill the bird
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