Re: Region-based memory management

Jon Harrop <jon@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
> As I understand it, MLKit is entirely region-based memory management and
the
> Stalin Scheme compiler uses similar techniques and this is fundamentally
> different from both reference counting and mark and sweep GC.

Region inference can do a lot, but I don't see how it's possible to
have no GC at all, and support typical functional programming style.
E.g., using functional maps as association tables that are "updated" a
lot by recursion, creates tons of garbage whose structure is entirely
data dependent and can't be predicted by region inference.

JHC (experimental Haskell compiler that is beating GHC at some
benchmarks) also uses region inference and is only now in the process
of getting a GC.