Add a slide with motivation why this is usefulHEADmaster

1 files changed, 17 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/weak-refs.org b/weak-refs.org
index fb97694..98cf5a7 100644
--- a/weak-refs.org
+++ b/weak-refs.org
@@ -13,6 +13,23 @@
               June 3rd, 2023
 
 
+* Why weak references?
+
+** User "kluk" on IRC mentioned not having line numbers in the interpreter
+** was a nonstarter.
+
+** Discussion followed.  Why don't we have it?
+
+*** Interpreter can read/eval an unbounded number of expressions
+*** So, line number database would keep growing
+*** Not great for memory usage - programs would get slower/crash over time
+
+** How could this be fixed?
+
+*** Have the line number db use weak pairs, with the input form collectable
+
+** We already "kind of" have weak pairs, but not user-visible
+
 * Quick refresher on data types
 
 All data is represented by a machine word: