Re: Space and Garbage

[kanderso@WILMA.BBN.COM]

  Return-Path: <CS.LAPOLLA@R20.UTEXAS.EDU>
  Redistributed: commonloops.pa
  Date: Mon, 13 Jun 88 14:18:43 CDT
  From: "M. V. LaPolla" <CS.LAPOLLA@r20.utexas.edu>
  Subject: Space and Garbage
  To: commonloops.pa@xerox.com
  Message-Id: <12406175738.36.CS.LAPOLLA@R20.UTEXAS.EDU>
  
  I am using CLOS for a very large project. Many
  objects are created for this project. The application 
  indexes objects in a hash table. When an application "object"
  is deleted this means that the slot in the hash table referencing
  the CLOS object is deleted. The CLOS object, however, is not.
  I am worried about space. Does CLOS garbage collect an if
  so what are the criteria for garbage. If it does not GC
  how may I delete a CLOS object and free up the space?
  
  Thanks,
  
  M.
  -------

PCL does not do any garbage collecting, as it expects the underlying
lisp to provide it.  If you want your objects GC'd make sure no other
object references them.

On a lisp machine with ephemeral GC, if the objects are long lived,
they may pass through the Ephermeral GC, so you may want to play with
its parameters a bit.

k