Post #514918

@kentpitman@climatejustice.social @screwlisp@gamerplus.org @cdegroot@mstdn.ca @ramin_hal9001@fe.disroot.org Generational GC changes the way you program and it's not *just* that it's efficient. We used MIT-Scheme (which, by the early 90s was showing its age). We did all manner of weird optimizing to use memory efficiently. Lots of set! to re-use structure where possible. Or (map! f list) -- same as (map...) but with set-car! to modify in-place -- because it made a HUGE difference not recreating all of those cons cells => bumps memory use => next GC round is that much sooner (and then everything STOPS, because Mark & Sweep). Also stupid (fluid-let ...) tricks to save space in closures. We were writing Scheme as if it were C because that was how you got speed in that particular world. 1/3