Re: Can lua 5.x work with handle-based memory managers...

[Joseph Stewart <joseph.stewart@...>]

On a related topic (to software memory management, not lua) does
anyone have a list of research papers for software memory management
(not limited to garbage collection).

-j


On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 19:05:20 +0000, Rob Kendrick <lua-l@nun.org.uk> wrote:
> Joseph Stewart wrote:
> > Hello my esteemed lua fans!
> >
> > I use an embedded operating system that looks a lot like the old
> > (pre-OSX) Apple Macintosh OS. The device has no hardware MMU to
> > provide a "flat" memory view to software. There are many concurrent
> > threads competing for the heap, so the OS developers implemented a
> > "handle-based" memory manager (apps get "pointers-to-pointers"). App
> > developers are encouraged to "unlock" their memory handles when not
> > actively using them.
> 
> RISC OS has a similar problem.  Memory fragmentation is common, and a pain.
> The typical solution is to use a "sliding heap" - one that keeps as small as
> possible.  When you free a block, it shuffles everything down, and updates the
> handles (or anchors) to point at the new location.
> 
> It's certainly a nice solution to the problem of MMU-less hardware with tiny
> amounts of RAM.  (Or even MMU-equipt machines, just with a witless OS, in RISC
> OS's case.)
> 
> I'd like to see Lua be able to use such things.  I don't actually have any use
> for it myself, but I can see why others might find it extremely lovely.
> 
> --
> Rob Kendrick
> 
> 


-- 
If it ain't broke, break it.  How else are you going to figure out how it works?