On Thu, Apr 28, 2005 at 05:57:10PM +0200, Robin Redeker wrote: > Just because refcounting is error-prone it doesn't mean that a garbage > collector is better (and less error-prone).
I'm one of the maintainers of the perl5 core. perl5 is very mature, with relatively few new features being added, and much emphasis on fixing existing bugs. A quick look at my last 60 patches shows that about 1/3 of them were related to ref count and memory leak bugs. Ref counting is near impossible to get 100% right. One of the advantages of GC over RC is that you are automating the process, and once the automation has the bugs wrinkled out of it, the whole rest of your code reaps the advantages. With RC, every single line of code in the core (and extensions) has to be carefully thought about to make sure there aren't leaks or premature frees, and every single change risks introducing new errors. (On the other hand, I *enjoy* hunting down refcnt bugs, so Down With GC !! :-) -- That he said that that that that is is is debatable, is debatable.
