Re: following up on speed

[Michael Vanier <address@hidden>]

> Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 14:44:14 -0400
> From: Ken Anderson <kanderson@bbn.com>
> 
> Getting the declarations write can be tricky.  While the compiler can 
> suggest that declarations are possible, it would be nice if it could put 
> them in for you!

I guess getting the declarations right is even harder than getting them
write ;-)  Sorry, couldn't resist.

On a sort-of related note, I've wondered for a long time why garbage
collection isn't provided as an operating system service instead of having
to be re-implemented for every single language that needs it (which is
rapidly becoming every single language except C/C++).  Given that writing a
good GC requires knowledge of the hardware (and usually some assembly
coding) it seems like almost a perfect example of something that should be
done by the OS.  In addition, I suspect that an OS-level GC would be much
more efficient, because it would be working on a much larger heap, with
more opportunities for compaction etc. (I don't really know much about
GC... can you tell?).  I'd appreciate it if any GC experts could tell me
why this isn't being done.

Mike