On Wed 02 Sep 2015 20:34, Mike Gran <spk121@yahoo.com> writes:

> On Wednesday, September 2, 2015 11:06 AM, Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org> wrote:
>  
>>Would it help to replace all uses of the term "scan" with "mark", in
>>connection with garbage collection?  In the papers I've read on GC,
>>"mark" is the word I usually see, and it seems much clearer to me,
>>because anyone who knows the basics of GC knows that "marking" is needed
>>to prevent an object from being freed, whereas "scanning" could mean
>>anything.
>
> That would help, I think.  I guess I was associating "scan" with
> the "sweep" part of mark and sweep.
>  
> Thanks very much for the clarification.

I think "scanning" is a term that is used sometimes, like tracing or
visiting.  But it's true that in the case of the manual it was used
without much context.  I made some tweaks that hopefully clarify things,
enough to close this bug anyway :)

Andy