robustness vs. conservative GC

[Fergus Henderson]

On 10-Aug-2001, Jeff Sturm <jsturm@one-point.com> wrote:
> 
> Supposing you do have exact type information for the stack, how can GC 
> be certain a stack slot is initialized?
> 
> You can initialize each stack frame on function entry, but it incurs some 
> cost.

Yes, that's probably the best approach, and yes, it does incur some cost.

Note that you only need to initialize pointers on the stack;
integers, floats, etc. on the stack can safely be left uninitialized.

-- 
Fergus Henderson <fjh@cs.mu.oz.au>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
The University of Melbourne         |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
WWW: < http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh >  |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.