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To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] limbo's GC
From: Charles Forsyth <forsyth@terzarima.net>
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yes.

>>that I can rely on instant deallocation of resources if the data structures
>>behind resources are acyclic?

yes.  actually, that's one slight difference with Java (as i knew it, anyhow).
a Java implementation might deallocate acyclic things immediately
but the language doesn't guarantee it.  Limbo does.

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Subject: [9fans] limbo's GC
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I have read the article and I am convinced. It is an algorithm different from
that I had in mind, but is efficient enough to support general-purpose garbage
collection.

I have been misled by limbo's papers and manual. 

Can I rephrase it as that I can use arbitrary data structures exactly as I would
with lisp or ML or any other language with automatic memory management. And
that I can rely on instant deallocation of resources if the data structures
behind resources are acyclic?

David
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