Re: GC ( Was: Re: ObjectiveC accessors)

[David Ayers]

Stefan Urbanek wrote:
> On 2004-05-30 12:40:06 +0200 David Ayers <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> > Stefan Urbanek wrote:
> >
> > > Speaking about retain/release being OpenStep specific. Why not to 
> > > include some kind of garbage collection into the language too? It is 
> > > used in majority of sources. Of course, with appropriate library 
> > > hooks/callbacks, so one can implement custom GC method. I think it 
> > > can be done in some simple way.
> >
> > The GNU runtime can be configured with garbage collection enabled. 
> > GNUstep uses the RETAIN/RELEASE/AUTORELEASE related macros because of 
> > this.  It also introduces the gnugc-gnu-gnu library combo for the GC 
> > enabled runtime.  I don't think this gets much testing though, but 
> > that's pure speculation.
>
> Why it is not used? Just lack of recommendations/advertising or are 
> there some other reasons? What are the problems with the GC (... that 
> can not be solved)?

I couldn't tell you why it's not used more widely (whether it has 
functional reasons or just lack of interest).  Personally I have a 
preference for explicit retain counting mechanism.  But I'd rather not 
discuss the merits and drawbacks of different memory management systems 
(at least not currently on these lists).  Maybe someone else who has 
actually used the GC runtime can give you more advice. Otherwise, if 
you're interested in the GC runtime, I suggest to just go ahead and use 
it.  If you find bugs, report them or better yet, fix them :-).

Cheers,
David