Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> >   But doesn't that make each program selfish? In other words, it only takes
> > care of itself not running out of memory but completely disregards any other
> > program running in the system at the same time?

> Yes? And how is that different from, say, Windows or Linux? Maybe I'm 
> not understanding your point.

  When a C/C++ program frees at least a certain amount of memory in Windows
and Linux, that memory is also freed from the system, and becomes available
to other programs.

  If a GC'd program never runs the GC, it will keep all that memory reserved
even though it doesn't use it. Moreover, a GC'd system often allocates a
lot more memory than it really needs (because "freed" memory cannot be
reused until the GC is run).

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message