Re: [boost] request for interest in a garbage collection library

Subject: Re: [boost] request for interest in a garbage collection library
From: Achilleas Margaritis (axilmar_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-04-23 08:15:43

"Kasra" <kasra_n500_at_[hidden]> wrote in message 
news:794765.62156.qm_at_web110015.mail.gq1.yahoo.com...
>
> I have interest in garbage collection. However, I have few questions about 
> this library.
>
> * How is it going to be better than The Boehm GC?
> * Why isn't it a wrapper for Bohem?

Here is a list of issues with Boehm GC:

1) the default C++ interface does not play well with C++ (as Boehm says 
here: http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/gcinterface.html).

2) in order to have GC'd threads, you need to replace native thread creation 
calls with Boehm GC thread creation calls. This means the Boehm GC library 
can not be used with third-party libraries that contain a threading API on 
top of native threads.

3) if you allocate data before calling GC_INIT() (for example, when 
initializing global variables), then they might not be collected. This is 
platform-specific, i.e. it works with some platforms, it does not work with 
some other platforms.

4) it's not clear what happens with allocations from DLLs.

This library is not better than Boehm's gc (certainly slower than Boehm's), 
but it is portable C++.