Re: [julia-users] Questions about the garbage collector

['Bill Hart' via julia-users]

Here is the (very primitive) example using mpn's that I mentioned.

import Base: +

typealias ZZ Array{UInt, 1}

function +(a::ZZ, b::Int)
   r = ZZ(length(a))
   ccall((:__gmpn_add_1, :libgmp), Void, (Ptr{UInt}, Ptr{UInt}, Int, Int), 
r, a, 3, b)
   return r
end

function doit(n::Int)
   a = ZZ(3)
   a[1] = rand(UInt)
   a[2] = rand(UInt)
   a[3] = rand(UInt)

   for s = 1:n
      a += s
   end

   return a
end


This code, unlike the Julia BigInt example does not exhibit the same 
behaviour. The memory usage is exactly as I would expect. It doesn't grow 
at all.

Bill.