I know approximately zero about the DoD and GC mechanisms which are currently used by Parrot, but I did attend a talk a few weeks ago about a promising new method of garbage collection called Ulterior Reference Counting:
<http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/hosking/690M/urc-oopsla-2003.pdf>
Two-line summary:
* gives as good performance as the best generational garbage collectors today, with
* even better latencies than the best reference counting mechanisms today
In a nutshell, it combines the RC and generational techniques so that generational collection is used for young objects in the nursery, and RC is used for old objects.
I don't know if you guys would be keen on replacing the current DoD mechanism with something more superior, but I thought I'd post a heads-up about it if the GC needs to be reworked at some point in the future.
Cheers,
-- % Andre Pang : trust.in.love.to.save
