[Python-3000] Delayed reference counting idea

[Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk]

Greg Ewing <greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz> writes:

>> It doesn't move objects in memory, and thus free memory is fragmented.
>
> That's not a feature of refcounting as such. With sufficient
> indirection, moveable refcounted memory blocks are possible
> (early Smalltalks worked that way, I believe).

Yes, but the indirection is a cost in itself. A tracing GC can move
objects without such indirection, because it can update all pointers
to the given object.

-- 
   __("<         Marcin Kowalczyk
   \__/       qrczak at knm.org.pl
    ^^     http://qrnik.knm.org.pl/~qrczak/