From: William Djaja Tjokroaminata <billtj@...>
Date: 2002-08-17T05:37:29+09:00
Subject: Re: Data_Make_Struct Considered Dangerous?

OK, one final thought/question.

It seems that based on the responses so far, the usefullness of ALLOC is:
    1) to free memory periodically
    2) safe when out-of-memory

Suppose we have a version of malloc that can also exit gracefully when
out-of-memory, and therefore the only advantage of ALLOC is to free memory
periodically (by invoking the garbage collector).

Suppose in this Ruby/C world we divide the memory into "Ruby memory" and
"C memory".  Ruby memory is defined to be memory consumed by Ruby because
of user's Ruby script and C memory is defined to be memory that is
allocated/deallocated by the C programmer who is writing Ruby/C.  To make
discussion simpler, assume that the total memory used is stable during the
life of the process.

To be interesting, we assume that the C memory is dynamic, i.e., memory is
continually being consumed (by using ALLOC() or malloc()) and being
released (by using free).  Then we have two possibilities regarding the
Ruby memory: either static or dynamic.  Ruby memory can become static
because in the user Ruby script, once the script is completely parsed,
there are no more new Ruby objects being created.  Then,

1) When Ruby memory is dynamic, we don't need to use ALLOC to free memory
periodically, because the garbage collector is already being called
often by Ruby internals.  If we use ALLOC, then the garbage collector is
called even more often, which may result in execution performance
degradation.

2) When Ruby memory is static, there is no real need to invoke the garbage
collector.  If we use ALLOC, then the garbage collecting is only an
execution waste, because no new memory will actually be released.

So, it seems that we should always use malloc (or its safe
version) instead of ALLOC.  What is the flaw in the above
argument?  (Sorry, plain response such as "it is stupid" is not
acceptable.)

If the above argument is accepted, then because Data_Make_Struct calls
ALLOC explicitly, it also follows that Data_Wrap_Struct should be
preferred to Data_Make_Struct.

Regards,

Bill