Bryce Kampjes <bryce at kampjes.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> Colin Putney writes:
>  > - Using native threads makes garbage collection really difficult, 
>  > particularly if you want to minimize pauses. Given that Squeak is 
>  > commonly used in multimedia applications, where GC pauses interfere with 
>  > smooth audio processing and animation, native threads would be problematic.
> 
> Garbage collection pauses may be a good reason to introduce VM level
> native threads.
I'm very curious how it is proposed to make GC work in parallel to normal operation. Given the absolute need to keep the object memory in a sane state at any time the execution of code is proceeding (which is why using native threads is difficult in the first place) how could we be moving object data around whilst another thread (or many - remember the urgent, vital need for native threads) is relying upon the oops and pointers.

We did quite a bit of working on this in the late eighties and nobody came up with a plausible, practical solution. Has anyone done so in recent years?

tim
--
Tim Rowledge, tim at sumeru.stanford.edu, http://sumeru.stanford.edu/tim
You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive.