From: Michael Neumann <mneumann@...>
Date: 2005-01-10T03:40:10+09:00
Subject: Re: Garbage collector

Martin Pirker wrote:
> "Eust�quio Rangel de Oliveira Jr." <eustaquiorangel@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>>And, do you have some links about the the Ruby mark-and-sweep type of
>>garbage?
> 
> 
> While I lack the skill to go source diving, I too am interested in more
> info about the gc.
> We use conservative gc [talk:102873], ok
> 
> So, can one help gc?
> e.g. if an Array or Hash is no longer needed, does an Array.clear or
> Hash.clear actually zero all internal pointers to help/speed up gc?

Yes, that should help, as the mark function would no more mark all the 
value. But I doubt that would be much of a performance win, because if 
the array-object goes out of scope (it's no more reachable), it's mark 
function would no longer be called. So, you would not want to call 
#clear. But that's just my understanding...

Regards,

   Michael