Re: Heap memory issues for Embedded Systems

["Adam D. Moss" <adam@...>]

glenn-edgar@onyxengr.com wrote:
> 1.  The garbage collector thresholds did not function correctly in a fixed 
> heap size.  The script writers had to manually force garbage collection.
>
> 2.  The utilization of the heap was around 50%.  This implied that there were 
> a significantly small objects being allocated???  This is a problem with C++ 
> and special heaps are designed to solve this problem.
>
> 3.  For soft real time problems, the lua scripts were a successful solutions.  
> Being greedy, I would like to extend the lua scripts into more real time 
> areas such as 60Hz type applications.  Web postings seem to indicate that the 
> game guys are possible interested in the same area.  Are there any garbage 
> collectors now or currently planned that will allow lua to operate in that 
> area?

You don't mention which version of Lua you investigated.  Lua 5.1's
incremental GC has some very interesting tuneables.

Lua isn't going to be more than 'soft' real time, if that, without
a rewrite/redesign I believe (and a hard realtime platform, natch).
But I think it's realistically quite good enough for ~60Hz
applications on modern hardware, 5.0 with some care, and 5.1 with
some minor tuning.  YMMV.

--adam
--
Adam D. Moss   -   adam@gimp.org