[Python-Dev] Lazily GC tracking tuples

[Kevin Jacobs]

On Wed, 8 May 2002, Tim Peters wrote:
> [...] apps slinging millions of tuples aren't rare, and it's not doing
> anyone any good in cases where they survive an unbounded number of
> collections.  They may be important not because it's pretty clear how to
> exempt them, but because they may be important <0.9 wink>.

Well, I've found one case where the garbage collector _does_ cause serious
performance problems, and coincidentally enough it is due to the creation of
zillions of cycle-less tuples.  Our current solution has been to disable GC
in some parts of our code, and then manually trigger collection at the
correct points.  When I can find some free time, I will definitly test drive
any available tuple untracking patches to see if they make any substantial
difference in our code.

Regards,
-Kevin

--
Kevin Jacobs
The OPAL Group - Enterprise Systems Architect
Voice: (216) 986-0710 x 19         E-mail: jacobs@theopalgroup.com
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