Re: Lua 5.1+ and variable-argument tables

[Rici Lake <lua@...>]

On 20-Aug-04, at 4:43 PM, Edgar Toernig wrote:

> > Whether an object is constructed on the heap or the stack is not
> > a conceptual difference, it is an implementation detail.
>
> Oh, it is a difference.  There is no "..." object.  There's
> only a syntax to access the varargs.  You see the difference
> in the benchmark above :-)

This same effect could be achieved with the single-bit reference
count which has been mooted several times. In this particular
case, no reference to the vararg object is ever present outside
of the stack, and a simple memory management optimisation could
avoid the gc effect.

Since arbitrary gc optimisations are possible, I continue to believe
that the heap vs. stack issue is an implementation detail.

Having said that, in the real world implementation details are
important.

R.