From: Joe Damato <ice799@...>
Date: 2010-01-14T14:03:09+09:00
Subject: [ruby-core:27585] Re: better GC?

On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 12:45 PM, Evan Phoenix <evan@fallingsnow.net> wrote:
>
> On Jan 11, 2010, at 2:58 PM, Roger Pack wrote:
>
>>>> I wonder if its GC could be merged into MRI :)
>>>
>>> Nope.
>>
>> Explanation? (Licensing problem?)
>
> The Rubinius GC (there are actually 3 of them) require write barriers. To port to MRI, you'd have to rewrite most of the internals to use write barriers, and then no extensions would work because the GCs are accurate only (no conservative stack scanning), and they require the ability to move objects.
>


You could do it without rewriting the MRI internals AND retaining
compatibility with extensions..

BUT

it would be painfully slow, probably unusable.

i'm joining in a bit late in this conversation, perhaps I can still catch up.

joe