Re: Why Mobile Apps Are Slow

[Robert Virding <robert.virding@...>]

It very much depends on which GC algorithm you use. Some work much better if you have a large memory compared to how much you need, for example a copying collector. A reference counting collector is generally much more efficient with memory as dead memory is reclaimed immediately. Many years ago I did an Erlang implementation with a reference counting GC and it was surprising how little memory it needed. Of course a RC collector is costly in other ways.

Robert

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Andrew Starks" <andrew.starks@trms.com>
> To: "Lua mailing list" <lua-l@lists.lua.org>
> Sent: Monday, 15 July, 2013 7:55:39 AM
> Subject: Why Mobile Apps Are Slow
> 
> An interesting read:
> 
> http://sealedabstract.com/rants/why-mobile-web-apps-are-slow/
> 
> Relevant here because Lua is mentioned, in passing, when Brendan Eich
> is quoted from the Lambda The Ultimate Discussion
> 
> It's interesting for his comments on how GC languages can't work well
> in memory constrained environments. "If you have 6 times more memory
> than you need, then GC makes sense."
> 
> I remember a presenter at the Lua conference talking about how he was
> hoping for increased memory performance. I think he was running out
> of
> memory when his 4 megs of ram hit 70% usage. (no hardware MMU, as I
> recall). That's in another world from the graphs that this guy is
> showing.
> 
> 
> -Andrew
> 
>