[Mono-list] mono-0.24 build and gdb

[Jim Blandy]

Miguel de Icaza <miguel@ximian.com> writes:
> Auto is an artifact of the past.  Back then we were hoping to support
> more than one GC engine.  Auto means `Use any GC if found, do not use it
> if not found' as opposed to `definitely use Boehm or definitely do not
> use anything'.

Out of curiousity --- do you folks still have plans to provide precise
GC, or have you gotten comfortable enough with the Boehm collector
that you don't feel it's worth the trouble any more?  There's been
enough hard work put into the Boehm GC that it would probably take a
while for a freshly written precise collector to catch up, in both
performance and stability.

The last note I could find on this question was Dietmar Maurer's:
http://lists.ximian.com/archives/public/mono-list/2002-August/007491.html

> We consider the Boehm GC only as temporary solution, so our final ngen
> solution must be able to work with non-conservative collectors.
> 
> - Dietmar

But then Paolo Molaro's slides about "Hosting the Mono Runtime" are a
bit more equivocal:

http://primates.ximian.com/~lupus/slides/embed/img17.html

    * Will require API changes if we ever use a precise GC

Them's some big API changes.  Seems like it would be good to settle
the issue early.