Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!lll-winken!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!aero-c!srt
From: srt@aero.org (Scott "TCB" Turner)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Memory Management in Lisp?
Message-ID: <1991Feb15.191259.20090@aero.org>
Date: 15 Feb 91 19:12:59 GMT
Sender: news@aero.org
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
Lines: 15

In building large systems in Lisp, I am consistently torn between (1)
making free use of Lisp's memory allocation and automatic garbage
collection to make my life as a developer easy and (2) handling 
garbage explicitly in hopes of creating a system that doesn't spend
all its effort thrashing garbage.

In T, I was aided somewhat in this conflict by weak reference ("pools")
which I could use to recycle objects freely, knowing that they could
still be GCed if they had no other reference.  Common Lisp lacks weak
reference, so this is no longer possible.

Will weak reference be added to Common Lisp?  Or even better, will some
kind of user memory management be added?

						-- Scott Turner