Newsgroups: alt.lang.design,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.lisp,zer.z-netz.sprachen.algorithmen
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!uhog.mit.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!gatech!swrinde!pipex!dircon!rheged!simon
From: simon@rheged.dircon.co.uk (Simon Brooke)
Subject: Re: Reference Counting (was Re: Searching Method for Incremental Garbage Collection)
Message-ID: <CzsIEq.3BB@rheged.dircon.co.uk>
Organization: none. Disorganization: total.
References: <3ai2ol$3ua@gate.fzi.de> <AST.178.785265972@postman.hsn.no> <CzKAnH.D3@rheged.dircon.co.uk> <3asu5u$4im@gateway.wiltel.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 1994 21:01:36 GMT
Lines: 39
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.lang.c:118322 comp.lang.c++:100823 comp.lang.lisp:15850

When one makes a real prat of oneself in public, one usually ends up
wishing one hadn't. This has been a pleasant exception.

In article <CzKAnH.D3@rheged.dircon.co.uk> Simon Brooke 
 (simon@rheged.dircon.co.uk) (that's me) wrote:

> After all, circular data structures hit most (all?) garbage collecting
> strategies. Anything in a circular structure necessarily does still
> have a pointer to it, even if nothing still 'live' points to any part
> of it. If there is a computationally tractable solution to this
> problem, please inform us of it (I'm not being rhetorical here: I
> don't know, but would be pleased to learn).

And now I have learned! Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the
discussion. It's made me think a lot about my own programming style,
and about the old canard:

	LisP programmers know the value of everything, but the
	cost of nothing :-}

(Note: this is not to insult all those people who write efficient code
in LisP. It's just that I guess I have something of a tendency to
think: 'performance problem? Shovel more silicon at it!' :-))

One thing I have learned: I've learned why I don't write C++. People
who can handle a system which not only doesn't provide automatic store
management, but in which a variable may or may not be a pointer and
doesn't know whether it is or not, are either much cleverer than me
or... or... I can't think of a tactful way of putting this, guys... :-}

>                 f u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgrmmng.

Maybe I'd better stick to garbage collection.

-- 
--------simon@rheged.dircon.co.uk

	to err is human, to lisp divine
				 ;; attributed to Kim Philby, oddly enough.
