On Thursday, 17 April 2014 at 11:31:52 UTC, Manu via
Digitalmars-d wrote:
ARC offers a solution that is usable by all parties.
Is this a proven statement?
If that paper is right then ARC with cycle management is in fact
equivalent to Garbage Collection.
Do we have evidence to the contrary?
My very vague reasoning on the topic:
Sophisticated GCs use various methods to avoid scanning the whole
heap, and by doing so they in fact implement something equivalent
to ARC, even if it doesn't appear that way on the surface. In the
other direction, ARC ends up implementing a GC to deal with
cycles. I.e.
Easy work (normal data): A clever GC effectively implements ARC.
ARC does what it says on the tin.
Hard Work (i.e. cycles): Even a clever GC must be somewhat
conservative*. ARC effectively implements a GC.
*in the normal sense, not GC-jargon.
Ergo they aren't really any different?
