[Entry from AMK's 1.6 jobs list:] > Conservative garbage collection of cycles (maybe -- I don't know what GvR > thinks about this) I believe Guido would like to see a version of Neil's patches integrated into Python 1.6, most likely turned off by default but with a configure flag to enable. I would like to check the patch in soon but I have had some trouble with segfaults. I ran a simple benchmark using the compiler code in the nondist tree to compile itself. I get a crash during a routine collect pass, where it looks like the GC header info is getting trashed. I haven't had much time to track it any farther. If anyone else is interested, I'd love to hear about successes using the GC patch with other large programs. I'd like to run at least Gadfly and Grail successfully before committing the patch. I wonder if "conservative" is the right word to describe the GC approach? I think conservative means that the garbage collector is not told what is a pointer and what is not, so it must conservatively assume that every bit pattern could represent a pointer. The GC patch is not conservative in this sense. It does have a mechanism that is "conservative" in a very broad sense, i.e. it does not attempt to trace every reference, but depends on the ref count fields to account for references held in untraced variables on the C stack. I'm not sure what the right terminology for this approach is. I also worry that the performance impact of the GC patch is not at all understood. I don't know what informed the choice of heuristics for deciding how often to collect and how to move objects between generations. (The current scheme has three generations.) It would be good to get a working patch in before the next alpha release and then gather a lot of data to help make good choices about these parameters. Jeremy PS Even if Guido doesn't think the GC patch should go in, we've got a golden opportunity. I caught him in a state of newly-wedded bliss this morning and convinced him to let me check in my non-optional braces patch while he's on his honeymoon. He's so happy he'll let us get away with anything. PPS I don't know if we should really carry on about personal matters on a development list, but I hope no one minds if I indulge briefly: Guido & Kim's wedding yesterday was beautiful and fun, held outside in meadow looking out on hills and woods. They are great couple and I'm sure they'll be very happy.
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