Martin Drautzburg wrote:
> Just for curiosity: does python use a mark-and-sweep garbage collector
> or simple reference counting?
python the language doesn't specify this, but I assume you meant the CPython
interpreter.
both, sort of: it uses reference counting, and a separate "cycle breaking"
collector
that runs when needed. but unlike an ordinary m&s-collector, python's collector
looks for unreachable objects, not reachable objects.
> For mark-and-sweep, I assume there must be a toplevel Object from
> which all other objects can be accessed or they will be GCed (called
> "Smalltalk" in Smalltalk). Is there such a thing?
nope. instead, the allocator keeps track of container objects that support the
GC
protocol. non-containers, such as integers and strings, are not tracked. for
an
overview, see:
http://www.arctrix.com/nas/python/gc/
for the details, see Modules/gcmodule.c.
other implementations are free to use other GC strategies. Jython, for
example, uses
the Java GC to handle Jython garbage.
</F>
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