On Sun, Apr 19, 2015 at 6:23 PM, boB Stepp <robertvst...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sun, Apr 19, 2015 at 4:05 PM, Dave Angel <da...@davea.name> wrote: >> On 04/19/2015 03:08 PM, boB Stepp wrote: >>> > >>> Or is the real point that we are adding an abstraction >>> layer so we don't even have to think about where objects are >>> physically stored in RAM? >> >> >> Somebody keeps track, but the address is not necessarily constant, and not >> necessarily stored in any references. The references (bindings) are >> abstract, and the details are unimportant to the user. For example, the >> jython system does not use addresses at all. And an object gets moved >> around from time to time without its references knowing it. > > The last sentence in this paragraph has me intrigued. Why would an > object, once it has been created, be moved? What practical benefit > does doing this give? > > boB
I'm guessing memory management. You want to have large contiguous blocks of memory available for large objects. If a small object is surrounded by available memory, you might want to move it to some smaller empty spot. > _______________________________________________ > Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org > To unsubscribe or change subscription options: > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor -- Joel Goldstick http://joelgoldstick.com _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
