Re:For Better Computing, Liberate CPUs from Garbage Collection
by kbenson on Thursday May 09, 2019 @12:45PM
(#19869826)
> AFAIK many wait-free data structures are pretty much impossible without a GC.
That makes no sense. You can implement a garbage collector in a manually managed program (or even just the specific parts that gain you the attributes required to accomplish something), so even if a GC made certain data structures easier, there's nothing to prevent their use in a manually managed language. The argument you're making is sort of like saying that certain things can only be accomplished in ain C or Java, and not in assembly.
More specifically to your actual assertion, anything a GC does for lock free data structures could be handled by a special routine or manually in a language where you handle memory manually.
That makes no sense. You can implement a garbage collector in a manually managed program (or even just the specific parts that gain you the attributes required to accomplish something), so even if a GC made certain data structures easier, there's nothing to prevent their use in a manually managed language. The argument you're making is sort of like saying that certain things can only be accomplished in ain C or Java, and not in assembly.
More specifically to your actual assertion, anything a GC does for lock free data structures could be handled by a special routine or manually in a language where you handle memory manually.