[Python-Dev] Death to WITH_CYCLE_GC

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Tim Peters wrote:
> I don't consider cyclic gc to be an experiment anymore.  It's proved to be
> very solid code, and it hasn't become orphaned either <wink>.
> 
> What say ye to nuking the #ifdefs conditionalizing it in the core for 2.3?
> They're irritating, the code base without cyclic gc is never tested, the
> touchy trashcan mechanism works in a radically different way when cyclic gc
> isn't compiled in, and if cyclic gc is compiled in it's easy to turn it off
> at will (gc.disable()).  It does cost memory for the gc header on
> containers, but since we never test without it the ability to compile it out
> isn't much of "a feature".
> 
> +1 from me <ahem>.

Hmm, isn't the idea of having compile time options to give
people a chance to eliminate the feature altogether ?

I'm thinking in terms of memory footprint of the running
interpreter and its binary. Platforms like e.g. Palm
or Pocket PC are very touchy about this. Embedded devices
even more.

How much memory footprint would removing the #ifdefs
cause on average ?

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
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