GC & sensory pointers.

[shapj@us.ibm.com]

I stand in the position of OS implementor, and so have the authority to do
anything I want...  :-)

More seriously, we can separate the traversal (the "mark" pass) from the
inquiry.  The authority to traverse needs to be closely held indeed.  We
can, however, imagine a number of relatively safe questions that the
traversal agent can elect to answer.  The two seem readily separated.

shap



Bill Frantz <frantz@communities.com> on 12/23/98 04:07:27 PM

To:   Jonathan S Shapiro/Watson/IBM, e-lang@eros.cis.upenn.edu
cc:
Subject:  Re: GC & sensory pointers.





At 01:49 PM 12/23/98 -0500, shapj@us.ibm.com wrote:
Sensory keys do produce an interesting problem for trying to answer what I
think is the really important question.  The GC form is, where has all my
storage gone?  The zap form is, if I zap this object, what will break?
Where do you stand to have enough authority to answer these questions?