| From: | Jim Peters |
| Date: | 22 Sep 2000 at 17:55:09 |
| Subject: | Re: AMIOPEN: XML and Java, a uncharted territory? |
On Fri, Sep 22, 2000 at 06:09:06AM -0500, Harold Grovesteen wrote:
> No chance for Java is not true. The latest version of Java 2 1.3 has a
> concept that provides a way to classify references. There are about 5
> or six different types. The purpose is to allow the application to
> intelligently guide the garbage collection process.
Interesting - I went and had a look. It seems to be a different idea,
though. What I meant was the ability to flag a reference variable
(i.e. pointer) declaration with a modifier like `const' or `volatile'
to indicate that `I own this object, and it's my job to free it'.
Java 1.3's idea is to wrap a reference (a pointer) inside a special
reference object, which adds at least 16-32 bytes per reference, I
reckon. This isn't an effective solution for what I had in mind.
What they are doing with their special references is different too -
they're using them to give the garbage-collector hints on what can be
thrown out when memory gets low. You can tell it to chuck out stuff
you know you can regenerate, caches and indexing tables and stuff like
that, I guess. For all other objects, the garbage-collection process
goes on as before.
Jim