Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!nntp.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Paul Rubin Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Subject: Re: Resources to learn common lisp? Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2026 14:21:00 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 29 Message-ID: <87bjd74kar.fsf@nightsong.com> References: <874inbqdz7.fsf@mariorosell.es> <87ecmf8488.fsf@bsb.me.uk> <874ina49v1.fsf@mariorosell.es> <87pl21m1i6.fsf@gmail.com> <1107n17$3k6ea$5@dont-email.me> <865x3sthhu.fsf@williamsburg.bawden.org> <1108d3q$3p7sr$2@dont-email.me> <875x3q2vsf.fsf@gmail.com> <110cvc6$13kte$8@dont-email.me> <87se6l4wab.fsf@nightsong.com> <87bjd91o18.fsf@jmertens.eternal-september.org> <110vg9o$292a0$2@dont-email.me> <1110d3n$2g725$1@dont-email.me> <1110s1u$3jmcm$1@paganini.bofh.team> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2026 21:21:00 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; logging-data="3046072"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+S9xTO6Gha8pDWrZ3Xyjzz"; posting-host="9568686c2285ffff37bc3638eeef3164" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/27.1 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:Szgvw1MTXYTyJq9O7GMc9IiJW7c= sha1:9drG+OFLpQUL7cEoBrKy3WA8OFI= sha256:PXCDUhn/yyHgNUJKbPt+/AtpOjwCGY8QRDmZBXAJM2c= sha1:G6IoLw0erByX4r8nLh3BTsRA8tI= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.lisp:60973 antispam@fricas.org (Waldek Hebisch) writes: > Both references that you gave show that reference counting does not > solve full problem. So it is resonable to say that garbage collector > uses reference counting as one of its methods, but not that > unqualified "reference counting is a form of garbage collection". Natural language is imprecise it's a question of terminology, like whether 0 is a natural number. The answer is not deterministic ;). From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_collection_%28computer_science%29 : Tracing garbage collection is the most common type of garbage collection, so much so that "garbage collection" often refers to tracing garbage collection, rather than other methods such as reference counting. ... Reference counting garbage collection is where each object has a count of the number of references to it. Garbage is identified by having a reference count of zero. An object's reference count is incremented when a reference to it is created and decremented when a reference is destroyed. When the count reaches zero, the object's memory is reclaimed.[15] > Reference counting may be part of solution, but without disclaimer > phrase as about would mean that it is full solution. We could say: reference counting is a form of GC that works only in some situations.