Re: [Caml-list] OCaml and Boehm

[Basile STARYNKEVITCH <basile@starynkevitch.net>]

Lukasz Stafiniak wrote:
>>     
> It is a large application. They debate whether to use Boehm or smart
> pointers. They already have embedded Scheme (Guile) and are about to
> embed Python. (Guile is said to be Boehm-compatible, in some sense,
> from the next version.) It is possible that Boehm is a no-way for
> them, I asked here to investigate this.
>   

My advice is always to avoid mixing several garbage collection 
techniques or implementations inside the same program.

I am not sure "they" are right in embedding both Guile & Python inside 
the same program. I would really avoid doing that, especially if the 
application is long-running or has to be reliable.

Did you consider having a separate Ocaml program (& perhaps also a 
separate Python program) which communicates with that application using 
some communication channel (be it a pipe, a socket, IPC or Posix shared 
memory, ...) which at least provides a separation between various GCs 
and address spaces...


 From what you are suggesting, "your" application seems to be a big 
spaghetti system, very brittle and hard to maintain. I do know that 
these are very common, but I won't like to be at your place... because 
you describe a realistic, but quite nasty, situation (probably more a 
management issue than a technical one).

But beware of  one stuff: GC bugs are hard to find! A single bug could 
mean weeks of efforts!

Regards.

-- 
Basile STARYNKEVITCH         http://starynkevitch.net/Basile/
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