Smart pointers instead of GC?

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 1/31/14, 8:33 PM, Frank Bauer wrote:
> @Andrei (who I believe is the go-to (!) guy for all things memeory
> allocation related right now):
> IIRC you mentioned that it was convenient to have the GC around for
> implementing the D language features. Would it just be a minor
> inconvenience to drop that dependency in the generated compiler output
> and replace it with new/delete or something equivalent to owning
> pointers, say over the next one or two years? Or would it be a major
> roadblock that would require too much redesign work?

It would be a major effort. It's possible we have to do it.

> Maybe you could
> test the concept of owning and borrowed pointers internally for some
> compiler components before actually bringing them "to the surface" for
> us to play with, if it turns out useful. But only of course, if we could
> leave the rest of D as good as it is today.
>
> I would really like to see the GC-free requesting crowd be taken a lttle
> more seriously. Without asking them to forego D features or do manual
> C++-style memory management. Javas and .NETs garbage collectors had
> enough time to mature and are still unsatisfactory for many applications.

I consider memory allocation a major issue to focus on in 2014.


Andrei