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From: kentb@argosy.UUCP (Kent Beck)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: Suspended processes building up...
Message-ID: <607@argosy.UUCP>
Date: 9 Jul 90 20:17:20 GMT
References: <23841@estelle.udel.EDU> <11736@netcom.UUCP>
Sender: news@argosy.UUCP
Reply-To: kentb@lankhmar.UUCP (Kent Beck)
Distribution: usa
Organization: MasPar Computer Corp, Sunnyvale CA
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On Tektronix' implementation of Smalltalk (and I believe the same holds
true for ParcPlace), allInstances can return "zombie" objects, objects
which are garbage but have not yet been collected.  Processor|yield does
a fork, creating a new process many times a second.  These processes are
scavenged quickly, but depending on how recently you have scavenged
there may still be many lying around.

Kent Beck