Re: (= GC ref.counting)?

[straz@cambridge.apple.com (Steve Strassmann)]

At 9:09 PM 3/6/95, Ken Tilton wrote:
>Funny, I did not see anything in StCLtL on this...
>
>(1) If two mutually referencing MCL objects are otherwise unreferenced, do they
>get GC'ed?

You bet. Reference counting is strictly for wimps and C programmers;
just about every lisp is vastly more cool.

>(2) Extra Credit: How does GC work? Two lists, objects and conses, and if one
>on the former ain't ref'ed by one of the latter, it's curtains? (I will
>understand if the response is, "You got a coupla hours?")

It's a big field, there's lots to read. Try Paul Wilson's comprehensive
survey of GC techniques for starters.

  http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/oops/papers.html#bigsurv
  ftp://ftp.cs.utexas.edu/pub/garbage


>>> BTW
>
>We are *loving* MCL! The world should know about this language. Seriously, with
>2-3mb RAM footprints par for the course, I think hardware has finally caught up
>with John McCarthy. Let's all get over to the C++ forum...

Go for it! Mom says pack plenty of extra asbestos undies!

>Two weeks and I'm addicted to parentheses already. So much so the loop macro
>turns me off--where are the parens?