[Python-Dev] Linus on garbage collection

[Mark Shannon]

Neal Becker wrote:
> http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2002-08/msg00552.html
> 
Being famous does not necessarily make you right.

OS kernels are pretty atypical software,
even if Linus is right about Linux, it doesn't apply to Python.

I have empirical evidence, not opinion, that PyPy and my own HotPy
are a *lot* faster (x5 or better) on Unladen Swallow's gcbench benchmark 
(which stresses the memory management subsystem).

(Note that gcbench does not introduce any cycles, so its being easy on 
CPython)

In fact, for gcbench CPython spends over twice as long in the 
cycle-collector as HotPy takes in total!
I don't have such detailed results for PyPy.

For other benchmarks, the HotPy GC times are often smaller than the 
inter-run variations in runtime, for example:

HotPy GC stats for pystones (on a slow machine with a small cache):

Total memory allocated: 20 Mbytes.
20 minor collections, 0 major collections
Max heap size 2.4 Mbytes.
Total time spent in GC: 3.5 milliseconds. ( <1% of execution time)

My GC is quick, but its not the fastest.

Evidence trumps opinion IMHO ;)

Cheers,
Mark.

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