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Practical Aspects for a Working Compile Time Garbage Collection System for Mercury

Nancy Mazur·Peter Ross·Gerda Janssens·Maurice Bruynooghe
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Abstract

Compile-time garbage collection (CTGC) is still a very uncommon feature within compilers. In previous work we have developed a compile-time structure reuse system for Mercury, a logic programming language. This system indicates which datastructures can safely be reused at run-time. As preliminary experiments were promising, we have continued this work and have now a working and well performing near-to-ship CTGC-system built into the Melbourne Mercury Compiler (MMC). In this paper we present the multiple design decisions leading to this system, we report the results of using CTGC for a set of benchmarks, including a real-world program, and finally we discuss further possible improvements. Benchmarks show substantial memory savings and a noticeable reduction in execution time.

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Nancy Mazur, Peter Ross, Gerda Janssens, Maurice Bruynooghe. 2001-10-17. Practical Aspects for a Working Compile Time Garbage Collection System for Mercury. https://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0110037

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