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Python vs Java garbage collection?

Aahz aahz at pythoncraft.com
Fri Dec 27 14:52:24 EST 2002 
In article <mailman.1041012336.30064.python-list at python.org>,
Skip Montanaro  <skip at pobox.com> wrote:
>
>    >>> It seems to me that it would most likely be a reference count.  
>    >> But that would slow down assignments and parameter passing in
>    Martin> Yes, I assumed that that was at least a good part of the reason
>    Martin> Jython abandonded the traditional ref counting of CPython.  
>
>Not at all.  Jython didn't abandon reference counting.  It wasn't an option.
>Jython compiles Python code to JVM bytecode, which is what implements the
>garbage collection.  In CPython, the C code which makes up the PyVM
>implements reference counting.

Your third sentence isn't quite true.  Early work on Jython did attempt
to emulate CPython's reference semantics, but it was abandoned as being
too slow.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"I disrespectfully agree."  --SJM
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