Re: Compile Time Garbage Collection impossible?

Rafael 'Dido' Sevilla wrote:


(snip)


> When you have dynamically allocated data structures, determining the
> scope of such an allocation is generally not so simple to determine
> statically. Think of what happens when you pass such an allocated data
> structure around among functions, which may put the pointer in different
> variables with different names, and even embed them inside of other
> dynamic data structures.


(snip)


It isn't always possible for run-time garbage collection, either.
Circular linked lists are an old favorite, where the links must
be broken before the GC will figure it out. It seems that it works
well enough most of the time, and compile time computation of when
to free things probably won't work well enough, but maybe sometimes
it will.


-- glen
[Mark and sweep collectors don't have any trouble with circular lists,
only reference counters. -John]

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