From: Eliot Miranda <eliotm@...>
Date: 2008-02-21T11:19:55+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby GC

Charles Oliver Nutter wrote:
> Pie Squared wrote:
>> So, my question is, does Ruby's GC (which is a mark-and-sweep
>> collector, I believe) deal with segmentation, and if it does, how?
>> Also, how does it deal with internal pointers to objects on the heap
>> if those objects are moved? (I mean, if theres a pointer to an object
>> in the heap, and the object is moved, how does Ruby locate it again?
>> Or does it avoid this situation by using some sort of lookup
>> mechanism?)
> 
> Ruby 1.8.6 and 1.9 do not have compacting collectors, so the memory 
> space gets increasingly more segmented.

The correct term is fragmentation.  Segmentation is something quite 
different, the division of main memory into memory subsystems/regions.

-- 
The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in      Calvin &
the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.       Hobbes.
--
Eliot     ,,,^..^,,,    Smalltalk - scene not herd