I built a garbage collector for a language that doesn't need one
claytonwramsey.com
If carcinization happens when languages evolve to be more like Rust, then what do you call it when Rust evolves to be more like Java? Caffeination?
  • lobsters__snej@crustaceanson.theshelf.topM
    1·
    17 days ago

    I’m not doubting the benchmarks, but I have trouble seeing how this can be fast. Gc::drop runs a (fairly expensive looking) scan whenever the target object’s refcount is > 1, which must be pretty common. That’s a significant write barrier. Or did I miss a later step where that gets optimized?

    I’ve seen other ref-counting implementations with cycle collectors (e.g. Nim’s) and usually they only run the collector periodically (IIRC), not on every release.

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    • lobsters__mplant@crustaceanson.theshelf.topM
      1·
      17 days ago

      I can’t speak to this exact implementation, but as this is basically Bacon-Rajan cycle collection, it’s not fast, especially when you use it heavily, and especially when you compare it with a dedicated garbage collector.

      There are Rc schemes that are about as fast as a dedicated garbage collector, but those are much, much more involved. The most recent and well known (that I know of) is LXR which builds on several different strategies such as Rc Immix

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