Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!ukc!strath-cs!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack From: jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) Newsgroups: comp.object Subject: Re: Stash Collection Message-ID: <7075@vanuata.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> Date: 29 Nov 90 11:23:53 GMT References: <2849@esquire.dpw.com> <1990Nov27.074534.17744@Think.COM> <2853@esquire.dpw.com> <2855@esquire.dpw.com> Reply-To: jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) Organization: COMANDOS Project, Glesga Yoonie, Unthank Lines: 20 Summary: Expires: Sender: Followup-To: Keywords: lou@cs.rutgers.edu wrote: > In regard to memory that is accessible unless and until the space is > needed for something else: there was a recent discussion on > comp.lang.lisp of "weak" links (I think that was the term), which are > links that can be followed to access some storage, but which do not > make the collector think the storage is "in use". Thus, when garbage > collecting, the storage looks like it can be reclaimed. This was used in a garbage collector for PS-algol written by Dave Sparks at ICL around 1986. It got rid of not-recently-referenced persistent objects, "unswizzling" pointers to them back to the persistent form. This didn't affect the semantics of the program at all since the persistent store manager could always find such objects again if they were needed. Made a big difference to performance of large applications. -- -- Jack Campin Computing Science Department, Glasgow University, 17 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland 041 339 8855 x6044 work 041 556 1878 home JANET: jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk BANG!net: via mcsun and ukc FAX: 041 330 4913 INTERNET: via nsfnet-relay.ac.uk BITNET: via UKACRL UUCP: jack@glasgow.uucp