I would consider "reference counting" one of the possible algorithms of garbage collection. Some others being mark-and-sweep and copying and their generational extensions. To me "garbage collection" means I do not have to deallocate memory explicitly.

I would actually like best a GC that'd count references, release immediately everything it can and run a mark&sweep or copy the still live stuff from time to time to clear up the forgotten self-referencing data. Especially since we are used to reference counting in Perl and mostly do make sure we do not forget to break cycles, but we tend to expect that objects are destroyed as soon as they stop being referenced.

Jenda
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In reply to Re^2: Gargantuan memory consumption issues by Jenda
in thread Gargantuan memory consumption issues by spx2

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