Re: Garbage collection (was Re: JWZ on s/Java/Perl/)

[Ken Fox]

Hong Zhang wrote:
> The memory barriers are always needed on SMP, whatever algorithm
> we are using.

I was just pointing out that barriers are an alternative to mutexes.
Ref count certainly would use mutexes instead of barriers.

> The memory barrier can be easily coded in assembly, or intrinsic
> function, such as __MB() on Alpha.

Perl ain't Java! We have to worry about XS code written in plain
old scary C. If we see some really amazing performance improvements
then I could imagine going with barriers, but I'm doubtful about
their portability and fragility.

Hmm. I just remembered the other GC technique that is very
fragile: ref counts. Maybe fragility isn't a problem after all. ;)

- Ken