Carmack about static analysis

[Robert Jacques]

On Tue, 27 Dec 2011 10:35:02 -0800, Sean Cavanaugh <WorksOnMyMachine at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 12/25/2011 10:23 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>>
>> As a first step, we must make all allocations except stack type-aware,
>> and leave only the stack to be imprecise.
>>
>
> Couldn't the GC'ing the stack be handled in a similar style to how the
> Windows x64 ABI functions with respect to exception handling?
>
> The unwinding code lives outside the normal program flow to reduce
> runtime overhead as much as posisble, at least until an exception is
> thrown.  At which point the exception handlers traverse this data
> structure to unwind the stack from wherever you are in your function
> (and its caller and so on).
>
> I would imagine a GC system could do something very similar.  There are
> a few MSDN blogs with a bunch of useful links out to more detailed
> information:
>
> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/freik/archive/2006/01/04/509372.aspx
>
> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/freik/archive/2005/03/17/398200.aspx
>
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1eyas8tf.aspx

Fully precise collectors for C have been done; e.g. MAGPIE: PRECISE GARBAGE COLLECTION FOR C