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practical functional programming

Chris Hecker
- John Max Skaller
- Francisco Reyes
- Jean-Christophe Filliatre
  - Chris Hecker
    - Stephan Houben
      - John Max Skaller
        
        Ken Wakita
        
        John Max Skaller
        
        Ken Wakita
        
        STARYNKEVITCH Basile
    - Xavier Leroy
      - Chris Hecker
        
        Stephan Houben
        
        Chris Hecker
    - Thorsten Ohl
    - qrczak@k...

Date:	-- (:)
From:	John Max Skaller <skaller@o...>
Subject:	Re: practical functional programming

Stephan Houben wrote:
> Reference counting is a (bad) substitute for real garbage collection, such as
> O'Caml has. No need for refcounting, since we have GC.

	I can't quite agree with that: reference counting is
a _different_ technique with different properties. In the right
circumstances it is faster than garbage collection, and permits
synchronous, well ordered finalisation. But it is only appropriate
where the 'skeleton' of the data structure is heirarchical, whereas
garbage collection works in general.

-- 
John (Max) Skaller, mailto:skaller@maxtal.com.au
10/1 Toxteth Rd Glebe NSW 2037 Australia voice: 61-2-9660-0850
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