0) Parrot's nomenclature DOD vs GC is a bit misleading. The "DOD" subsystem is the stop-the-world mark & sweep collector that recycles object headers. The "GC" is the copying collector for variable sized string and other buffer memory. The incremental mark & sweep collector (src/gc_ims.c) is an alternative for the DOD thingy and reuses some code in src/dod.c.
Nah, this is actually correct. The DOD does, in fact, look for dead objects (if you consider PMC and buffer headers objects. The GC, on the other hand, collects up garbage memory, making the assumption that all the objects marked live are, in fact, live. Separate phases, separate purposes.
This works on the presumption that our mutable strings chew up memory more than objects in the normal running of things, which seems bourne out by the programs that look like 'normal' code.
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Dan
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Dan Sugalski even samurai
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