Rick DeNatale wrote:
> On 2/20/08, Eliot Miranda <eliotm / pacbell.net> wrote:
> 
>> In my day they were called libraries.  Now its called "wikipedia".
>>
>>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_collection_%28computer_science%29
> 
> I hadn't seen this article before, a quick skim and I'd say it looks
> like a decent survey, although I'd like to see a little more credit
> given to some of the GC innovators:
> 
>    Henry Baker,
>    Dave Ungar
>    Eliot Miranda ?

     I wish :)  I've never done anything innovative in the GC field. 
Just implemeted and/or enhanced a few.

People like Carl Hewitt, L. Peter Deutsch, Hans Boehm, Richard Hudson, 
Eliot Moss, Urs Höìzle (and Ungar and Baker) have innovated.

>>  But efore you read up, ask yourself how you *think* it might work.  One
>>  hint.  Its paradoxical.  To first collect garbage you could identify
>>  everything you don't wan to throw away.
> 
> Yes indeed, unless you want a potentially unpleasant surprise!  Far
> worse for a GC to throw away non-garbage than not to throw away all
> garbage.

I meant that most algorithms identify non-garbage, leaving garbage to be 
found implicitly (e.g. the space left behind after a scavenging/copying 
GC).  Only ref counting explicitly identifies garbage, and proves to be 
expensive since in OO languages most objects die young.

-- 
The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in      Calvin &
the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.       Hobbes.
--
Eliot     ,,,^..^,,,    Smalltalk - scene not herd