[Python-3000] Is reference counting still needed?

[Josiah Carlson]

"Edward C. Jones" <edcjones at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> Wild Idea:
> 
>  From Section 1.10 of "Extending and Embedding":
> 
> Maybe some day a sufficiently portable automatic garbage collector will 
> be available for C. Until then, we'll have to live with reference counts.
> 
> Any hope such a GC will be available before Python 3.0?

Short answer: not likely.

Longer answer:
Even if py3k is really Python 3.0, there is the standard 1.5-2 years
between 2.x releases, and 3.0 comes 1.5-2 years after 2.9, I would bet
modest sums of money against Python 3.0 having non-reference counting GC. 
Why?  Reference counting has worked reasonably well so far (quite well
if you ask me).  There have been numerous discussions over the years
about getting a "real" garbage collector into Python, google for it.

 - Josiah