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authorPeter Bex <peter@more-magic.net>2023-06-03 14:50:01 +0200
committerPeter Bex <peter@more-magic.net>2023-06-03 14:50:01 +0200
commit74d4e679f07ed2f52ddac23a1ca7a5db98017d27 (patch)
tree6d7080b0f6d1367d2881a9a7a1f884fc9dcbe8df
parent9457d8ed820d36f1492481413e454c4b20b61b42 (diff)
downloadweak-refs-for-chicken-master.tar.gz
Add a slide with motivation why this is usefulHEADmaster
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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: