From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@...>
Date: 2002-08-24T03:18:59+09:00
Subject: Re: Why Ruby Uses Mark-and-Sweep GC?


Dan Sugalski <dan@sidhe.org> writes:
> At 1:18 AM +0900 8/24/02, William Djaja Tjokroaminata wrote:
> >I think one of the problems with reference counting is the circular
> >reference, which cannot be handled by the gc.
> 
> That's one problem. Reference counting is also more expensive over 
> the long run than more automatic methods. Also more error-prone.

There are, of course, better gc's than mark and sweep -- compacting
collectors and generational compacting collectors come to
mind. Writing an implementation that deals with a compacting collector
can be a royal pain though -- you never know when an object will get
moved out from under you.

Perry