collecting the collector?

From: Michael Hicks (mwh@dsl.cis.upenn.edu)
Date: Thu Oct 21 1999 - 22:07:58 MET DST

From: Michael Hicks <mwh@dsl.cis.upenn.edu>
Message-Id: <199910212007.QAA25159@codex.cis.upenn.edu>
Subject: collecting the collector?
To: gclist@iecc.com, caml-list@inria.fr
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 16:07:58 -0400 (EDT)

I've addressed this mail both to the caml-list and the gclist as both
communities presumably could shed light on this area. No french version ---
sorry!

I have some code written in OCaml that I've exported to .a file (using the
standard procedure outlined in the OCaml manual, including using
-output-obj); this .a file will obviously include the OCaml runtime system,
and thus its precise collector. I'm linking this .a file with a C program
that has its own garbage collector, the Hans-Demers-Weiser conservative
collector.

I'm wondering if anyone has any stories from doing something of this sort
before, or could at least speculate on how the two collectors will interact.
I'm presuming that the OCaml collector will be "contained" within the area
governed by the conservative collector, and so that potential mishaps will
arise from the Caml collector doing something pointer unsafe, but that the
conservative collector will not do anything screw up the OCaml one (which
operates only on the Caml code contained in the .a file, and not the rest fo
the C program).

Thanks in advance,
Mike 

-- 
Michael Hicks
Ph.D. Candidate, the University of Pennsylvania
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~mwh            mailto://mwh@dsl.cis.upenn.edu
"Conversion is something momentary; sanctification is the work of a lifetime"
-- J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By"

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