From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Kjetil S. Matheussen" Newsgroups: gmane.lisp.guile.user Subject: Re: the future of Guile Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 18:42:06 +0100 (CET) Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1197049391 14783 80.91.229.12 (7 Dec 2007 17:43:11 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 17:43:11 +0000 (UTC) To: guile-user@gnu.org Original-X-From: guile-user-bounces+guile-user=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Dec 07 18:43:21 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: guile-user@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1J0hEI-0001wc-8u for guile-user@m.gmane.org; Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:43:14 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1J0hE1-0000Sp-Am for guile-user@m.gmane.org; Fri, 07 Dec 2007 12:42:57 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1J0hDP-0008AI-QS for guile-user@gnu.org; Fri, 07 Dec 2007 12:42:19 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1J0hDP-00088W-29 for guile-user@gnu.org; Fri, 07 Dec 2007 12:42:19 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1J0hDO-00088H-NR for guile-user@gnu.org; Fri, 07 Dec 2007 12:42:18 -0500 Original-Received: from mail-forward.uio.no ([129.240.10.42]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1J0hDO-0005t0-3M for guile-user@gnu.org; Fri, 07 Dec 2007 12:42:18 -0500 Original-Received: from mail-mx6.uio.no ([129.240.10.47]) by pat.uio.no with esmtp (Exim 4.67) (envelope-from ) id 1J0hDJ-0006mG-Tf; Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:42:13 +0100 Original-Received: from bjo1-1x-dhcp290.studby.uio.no ([193.157.245.38]) by mail-mx6.uio.no with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.67) (envelope-from ) id 1J0hDH-0004Sd-II; Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:42:11 +0100 X-X-Sender: kjetil@ttleush In-Reply-To: X-UiO-ClamAV-Virus: No X-UiO-Spam-info: not spam, SpamAssassin (score=-0.1, required=5.0, autolearn=disabled, AWL=-0.056) X-UiO-Scanned: 35F7E5FF040826DDD822C26F2223B7BFC0AA63CB X-UiO-SPAM-Test: remote_host: 193.157.245.38 spam_score: 0 maxlevel 200 minaction 2 bait 0 mail/h: 1 total 565 max/h 6 blacklist 0 greylist 0 ratelimit 0 X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) X-BeenThere: guile-user@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: General Guile related discussions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: guile-user-bounces+guile-user=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: guile-user-bounces+guile-user=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.lisp.guile.user:6356 Archived-At: "Marco Maggi": >>> 4. If a garbage collector allows to remove the need for >>> "scm_remember_upto_here" it must be adopted even if it >>> makes Guile slower and it raises memory usage a bit (or >>> more than a bit). >> >> Who cares? I have written thousands and thousands of lines >> of guile extensions in C. I have not yet had to use >> this. Perhaps it's just dumb luck or something. > > While coding GEE I had crashes that I fixed by remembering. > I am probably using it also in places where it is not > required. But I am not able to recognise those places, can > you guess why? > When I developed this: http://www.notam02.no/arkiv/doc/snd-rt/ , my biggest problem was all crashes related to garbage collection. I think I got rid of the last garbage collector-bug in september 2006, which was related to the ladspa plugin[1] SMOB in the function rt-compiler.scm/make-ladspa. In that function, the variable "handle" could be garbage collected during the execution of the function. The diff for the fix is here: http://snd.cvs.sourceforge.net/snd/cvs-snd/rt-compiler.scm?r1=1.45&r2=1.46 I think the exampe above shows how insanely complicated things can get when you manually have to tell guile's garbage collector what to scan and what not, and I also think it was a miracle that I eventually spotted the bug. :-) So in my experience, the current system is very inconvenient, and should be replaced by a general garbage collector which works also works for C objects, where this and other related problems wouldn't be an issue. [1] ladspa is the linux audio plugin format _______________________________________________ Guile-user mailing list Guile-user@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/guile-user