From: Kev Jackson <kevin.jackson@...>
Date: 2006-03-01T12:04:06+09:00
Subject: Re: Symbols overlap ordinary objects, especially on OS X (Was: Re: Problem with weak references on OS X 10.3)

Evan Webb wrote:

>Just my quick 2 cents...
>
>Akira's patch is much more acceptable imho because it doesn't change
>the already pretty hardset semantics of the VALUE meaning. In
>addition, the other patch has a significant performance / memory
>impact that should be considered before accepting the patch. By moving
>fixnum down by a full 4 powers of 2, and triggering Bignum conversion
>much earlier than is currently seen, memory utilization patterns will
>change significantly for anyone working with decently large integers.
>
>Akira's patch simply guarantees that all Object pointers are aligned
>to never collide with the other immediates, which is the overall goal
>of having immediate values. It's also significantly simplier.
>
>Nice job Akira.
>
> - Evan <evan at fallingsnow dot net>
>  
>
Both points are excellently made - especially about the fact that the 
other patch could cause a problem with BWC - ie stuff that was working 
fine with large integers now starts to behave in a different manner

Great post
Kev