On Sun, Oct 28, 2012 at 4:55 AM, John Mija <[email protected]> wrote:
> Does make sense to have a language with manual memory management since it's
> possible to create stuff of low level with a specialized garbage collector?

IMO The problem with traditional non-GC languages isn't that it's not
automatic, it's that it's not safe. In other words, the argument for
GC is one for safety, not for "resource management is an unimportant
detail that the system should do".

Safety is the key, not the convenience of not having to think
carefully about resource management. As long as the compiler tells you
when you get it wrong the question is: does it make sense to take one
of the most important performance aspects out of the hands of the
programmer? Automating unnecessary detail is good, but also providing
safe manual control for when you need it is even better.

I think this will be even more the case in the future. Heap sizes are
growing tremendously, and the cost of touching memory is growing too.
GC performance is therefore, in the sense of being relative to the
main CPU workloads, getting worse with time, it seems to me. Putting
the programmer back in the loop here (safely) seems like the right
call.

Seb

-- 
Sebastian Sylvan
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