Re: reference count size

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From	Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.programming
Subject	Re: reference count size
Date	Sat, 09 Jun 2012 21:43:27 +1200
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On 06/ 9/12 09:29 PM, Chris Uppal wrote:
> Robert Wessel wrote:
>
>> 64 bit systems are all over the place.  I've seen 32, 40, 48 and 64
>> bit reference counts, although 32 may be the most common for now (in
>> both the 48 and 64 bit cases some bits nominally in the count field
>> were repurposed).
>
> Interested to know where you've seen these choices ?
>
> To my knowledge, such as it is, reference-counting has all but died out.  The
> exceptions being more-or-less ad-hoc solutions to problems requiring GC in
> languages which don't have it (e.g. COM); highly specialised domains (such as
> Unix I-Nodes); and optimisations in "real" GC (which use only one or two bits +
> saturation).

Reference counting isn't only used in GC.  C++ smart pointers (such as 
std::shared_ptr) are one common example.

-- 
Ian Collins

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reference count size bob <bob@coolfone.comze.com> - 2012-06-07 08:42 -0700
  Re: reference count size "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-06-07 17:23 +0100
    Re: reference count size BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-06-07 23:55 -0500
      Re: reference count size "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-06-08 16:52 +0100
        Re: reference count size BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-06-09 09:11 -0500
  Re: reference count size Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2012-06-07 11:32 -0500
    Re: reference count size "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2012-06-09 10:29 +0100
      Re: reference count size Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-06-09 21:43 +1200
  Re: reference count size JJ <jaejunks@googlemail.com> - 2012-06-08 01:46 +0700
    Re: reference count size Willem <willem@toad.stack.nl> - 2012-06-07 18:52 +0000

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