[Python-Dev] iterzip()

[Martin v. Loewis]

Tim Peters <tim.one@comcast.net> writes:

> > Maybe a (potentially) infinite number of generations?  (Or at least a
> > fixed limit that never gets reached in practice.)  Wouldn't this have
> > the same effect as increasing the threshold exponentially?
> 
> Yes, but it wouldn't get the effect of decreasing the threshold
> exponentially when gc suddenly starts getting lots of trash back from the
> oldest generation.  Only adaptive schemes actually adapt <wink>.

That is no problem: if the application suddenly starts to create much
new garbage, that garbage won't be in the oldest generation.

You only run into this case when you release essentially all past
objects. In that case, you just have to hope that the application will
terminate soon, anyway, or that the next processing cycle will produce
the same amount of garbage, triggering a collection in the oldest
generation.

Regards,
Martin