Idea #1 on integrating RC with GC

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 2/4/14, 5:12 PM, deadalnix wrote:
> On Tuesday, 4 February 2014 at 23:51:35 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> Consider we add a library slice type called RCSlice!T. It would have
>> the same primitives as T[] but would use reference counting through
>> and through. When the last reference count is gone, the buffer
>> underlying the slice is freed. The underlying allocator will be the GC
>> allocator.
>>
>> Now, what if someone doesn't care about the whole RC thing and aims at
>> convenience? There would be a method .toGC that just detaches the
>> slice and disables the reference counter (e.g. by setting it to
>> uint.max/2 or whatever).
>>
>> Then people who want reference counting say
>>
>> auto x = fun();
>>
>> and those who don't care say:
>>
>> auto x = fun().toGC();
>>
>>
>> Destroy.
>>
>> Andrei
>
> RC need GC to collect loops. So you want to have the GC at the lowest
> level.

Correctamundo.

> That being understood, I'd rather connect things the other way around.
>
> auto x = foo();
> auto x = foo().toRC();

I don't know how to implement that.


Andrei