INTRODUCTION
C is and has always been one of the most
widely and popularly used programming languages in the world. We, as a part of
our B.E Degree course have done a lot of programming in C and have always used
the built in functions defined in the standard library like “malloc”, “calloc”
etc. to allocate memory and when the allocated memory is not needed any more we
use the built in function “free” to free up the allocated memory.
What we have attempted to improve the functionality
of the ‘C’ programming language by developing a library that supports garbage
collection. We were inspired by the presence of the GC features in JAVA and
proceeded to develop one for C. So now, the ‘C’ programmer is relived of the
task of keeping track of what memory locations are currently being referenced
and what are not. If the programmer uses our library for allocating memory
dynamically, we will make sure (conservatively) that the allocated memory is
automatically freed (i.e.) garbage is collected when it is no longer
referenced.
Myths about GC
·
GC
is necessarily slower than manual memory management.
·
GC
will necessarily make my program pause.
·
Manual
memory management won't cause pauses.
·
GC
is incompatible with C.
Facts about GC
·
Most
allocated objects are dynamically referenced by a very small number of
·
Pointers.
The most important small number is ONE.
·
Most
allocated objects have short lifetimes.
·
Allocation
patterns (size distributions, lifetime distributions) are bursts, not uniform.
·
Optimal"
strategies can fail miserably.
ARTICLE BY
P.H.S.
UMA MAHESHWARI
PRE-FINAL
YEAR IT
