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From: hbaker@netcom.com (Henry Baker)
Subject: Re: Garbage collection cost (was Re: Parenthesized syntax challenge)
Message-ID: <hbaker-3110950042540001@10.0.2.15>
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References: <44aa9a$j5h@miso.cs.uq.edu.au> <LUDEMANN.95Oct6140930@expernet26.expernet.com> <DGApp8.J41@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca> <MAD.95Oct13123618@tanzanite.math.keio.ac.jp> <45ksdk$7gr@jive.cs.utexas.edu> <DGJp8o.7nF@Cadence.COM> <MAD.95Oct18040436@tanzanite.math.keio.ac.jp> <hbaker-1710952127200001@10.0.2.15> <46jb8v$sm8@news.parc.xerox.com> <hbaker-2510951016220001@10.0.2.15> <DH25zB.7D@kroete2.freinet.de> <hbaker-2710952309000001@10.0.2.15> <4738bf$5pk@news.parc.xerox.com>
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 08:42:54 GMT
Lines: 20
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.lang.dylan:5755 comp.lang.lisp:19793 comp.lang.java:3285

In article <4738bf$5pk@news.parc.xerox.com>, boehm@parc.xerox.com (Hans
Boehm) wrote:

> In the case of C, the client code can't reliably distinguish pointers
> from nonpointers either, so the compressor has as much information as anybody
> else.  Hence the distinction disappears.  (The client code can sometimes
> identify pointers, so this may not be quite accurate, but it's probably
close.)

I was hoping that the compressor wouldn't have to know anything about the
code and/or data being compressed.  While knowledgeable compressors can
often be more succinct, they complexity of managing them is probably not
worth it right now.  You're probably better off knowing the basic
characteristics of your compressor & what kinds of things will compress
well.  Most programs will require a bit of a rewrite to really take
advantage of compressed VM, anyway.

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