[Mono-list] Is there a mechanism to precompile a method?

[Holger Arnold]

Hello,

> One thing I wanted to explore in the past (but there has been no need to
> do so far) is to use implicit reference counting with cycle detection
> for the GC engine.  It uses some extra 32 bits of memory per object
> allocated, but it gives you the predictability you are looking for.
>
> There are various papers that discuss the subject, we have some linked
> from the Mono site.

I agree, reference counting would be a viable alternative. I just don't know 
if and how cycle detection could be done efficiently (i.e. more efficient 
than a gc run). 

As a garbage collector would be needed, even when reference counting is used, 
for defragmentation, and as only a small part of the data is really cyclic, I 
think that it would be a good thing to use reference counting and gc 
together. This would reduce the amount of work to do for the garbage 
collector and make it faster. Doesn't the Python memory management work this 
way?

> > I was not yet able to look at the gc interface of Mono. How difficult
> > would it be to switch from the currently used Boehm-Weiser collector to a
> > different one? Could this be done for single domains or threads?
>
> It is doable, but requires a lot of work.

Too bad. Then it is your intention to keep the Boehm collector in forever? I 
thought that it was just an intermediate solution.

Holger