Python 2.0

[Graham Matthews]

Blake Winton (bwinton at tor.dhs.org) wrote:
: Ref counting with GC sounds to me like a good idea for Python 2.0, as it
: will eliminate a class of memory leaks that Python can currently fall
: prey to.  As long as you don't move stuff around in memory, and only
: collect things where all the refcounts are accounted for, and can't be
: reached, you should be safe.  Granted, this means that the people
: writing the extensions will have to be careful to INCREF/DECREF where
: they're supposed to, but I don't see that as a bad thing since they
: should already be careful about that sort of stuff.

Actually Blake I have a feeling that I have read a paper somewhere that
says that a mark sweep collector with refcounts can in fact patch up
refcount errors, so it won't be so critical that extension writers get
their INCREF/DECREFs just right. I am not 100% sure of this but at least
on the surface it seems plausible (even if it can only give a warning
about such errors). Anyone know more about this?
graham

-- 
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