On Sat, Jul 21, 2018 at 6:44 AM, Jonathan Fine <jfine2358@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Steve
You wrote:
My understanding is that reference counting is both deterministic and immediate. Shifting the reference counting into another thread so that it becomes non-deterministic and potentially delayed doesn't sound like an advantage to my naive understanding.
The choice is not as simple as that. Here's an example.
Suppose you and your friend want to sort a deck of cards. Here's an algorithm.
* Divide the deck into two * Each person sorts their half deck * One of you does a merge of the two half decks
This algorithm is non-deterministic. But for a large deck it's quicker than any deterministic algorithm.
Divide the deck into "first half" and "second half". Then sort the half decks using a stable algorithm. Finally, merge the decks, favouring cards from the first half. Voila! You now have a fully deterministic and stable sort. ChrisA