From: S.Marion
Subject: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <d7p9bc$qlo$4@oheron.kent.ac.uk>
Hello,

We are interested in programmers' experiences of programming languages
supported by managed runtimes (including but not limited to Java, C#, etc).
In particular, we are interested in bugs and performance limitations that
can be ascribed to the garbage collector.

We would be grateful to receive any accounts of such problems encountered.
If you think you can help, would you please complete the form located at
	http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/rpg/sm244/GCForm/

Thank you for your assistance.

Richard Jones
Sebastien Marion

From: alex goldman
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <2443726.RrRprmeaYN@yahoo.com>
S.Marion wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> We are interested in programmers' experiences of programming languages
> supported by managed runtimes (including but not limited to Java, C#,
> etc). In particular, we are interested in bugs and performance limitations
> that can be ascribed to the garbage collector.
> 
> We would be grateful to receive any accounts of such problems encountered.
> If you think you can help, would you please complete the form located at
> http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/rpg/sm244/GCForm/
> 
> Thank you for your assistance.
> 
> Richard Jones
> Sebastien Marion

I had terrible experiences with Garbage Collection. I once spent over 2
weeks doing numerical calculations on my workstation, and when they were
finished, and I was about to print the results, it turned out that they
were Garbage Collected :-(

Happy computing, and don't forget to turn your Garbage Collector off.
From: Marco Antoniotti
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <_O1oe.56$mi7.86988@typhoon.nyu.edu>
alex goldman wrote:
> S.Marion wrote:
> 
> 
>>Hello,
>>
>>We are interested in programmers' experiences of programming languages
>>supported by managed runtimes (including but not limited to Java, C#,
>>etc). In particular, we are interested in bugs and performance limitations
>>that can be ascribed to the garbage collector.
>>
>>We would be grateful to receive any accounts of such problems encountered.
>>If you think you can help, would you please complete the form located at
>>http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/rpg/sm244/GCForm/
>>
>>Thank you for your assistance.
>>
>>Richard Jones
>>Sebastien Marion
> 
> 
> I had terrible experiences with Garbage Collection. I once spent over 2
> weeks doing numerical calculations on my workstation, and when they were
> finished, and I was about to print the results, it turned out that they
> were Garbage Collected :-(
> 
> Happy computing, and don't forget to turn your Garbage Collector off.

Well, that was your problem.  If you did not save the intermediate 
results anywhere, then that was a semantic problem with your code.

Cheers
--
Marco
From: Fred Gilham
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <u71x7jtcas.fsf@snapdragon.csl.sri.com>
Marco Antoniotti <·······@cs.nyu.edu> writes:

> alex goldman wrote:
> > I had terrible experiences with Garbage Collection. I once spent
> > over 2
> > weeks doing numerical calculations on my workstation, and when they were
> > finished, and I was about to print the results, it turned out that they
> > were Garbage Collected :-(
> > Happy computing, and don't forget to turn your Garbage Collector off.
> 
> Well, that was your problem.  If you did not save the intermediate
> results anywhere, then that was a semantic problem with your code.

Actually I think his real problem was that he had garbage in his
inputs.  By the GIGO rule, that gave him garbage in his outputs, which
got (quite properly) garbage-collected by the system rather than being
propagated into papers and surveys or otherwise doing harm to the
world.

-- 
Fred Gilham                                        ······@csl.sri.com
A gold coin standard transfers monetary policy-making from central
bankers and government officials to the common man, who can walk into
a bank and demand payment for paper or digital currency in gold
coins. This is the ultimate form of democracy, and the Establishment
hates it.                                   -- Gary North
From: alex goldman
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <1217961.IHgiCJizZT@yahoo.com>
Marco Antoniotti wrote:

> 
> 
> alex goldman wrote:
>> S.Marion wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>>Hello,
>>>
>>>We are interested in programmers' experiences of programming languages
>>>supported by managed runtimes (including but not limited to Java, C#,
>>>etc). In particular, we are interested in bugs and performance
>>>limitations that can be ascribed to the garbage collector.
>>>
>>>We would be grateful to receive any accounts of such problems
>>>encountered. If you think you can help, would you please complete the
>>>form located at http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/rpg/sm244/GCForm/
>>>
>>>Thank you for your assistance.
>>>
>>>Richard Jones
>>>Sebastien Marion
>> 
>> 
>> I had terrible experiences with Garbage Collection. I once spent over 2
>> weeks doing numerical calculations on my workstation, and when they were
>> finished, and I was about to print the results, it turned out that they
>> were Garbage Collected :-(
>> 
>> Happy computing, and don't forget to turn your Garbage Collector off.
> 
> Well, that was your problem.  If you did not save the intermediate
> results anywhere, then that was a semantic problem with your code.

They got garbage-collected before I had a chance to save them.

LISP> (defvar results (long-calculations input-data))
;; 2 weeks later
LISP> (save-to-disk results "/home/ag/results.data")

Error: too late, the contents of the variable RESULTS have been
garbage-collected. Possible restarts:

(0) Abort
(1) Enter another variable
(2) Enter new value for variable RESULTS
(3) Listen to what Kaz says
From: Paul F. Dietz
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <E9SdnZ3TY8rKBzzfRVn-rg@dls.net>
alex goldman wrote:

> They got garbage-collected before I had a chance to save them.
> 
> LISP> (defvar results (long-calculations input-data))
> ;; 2 weeks later
> LISP> (save-to-disk results "/home/ag/results.data")
> 
> Error: too late, the contents of the variable RESULTS have been
> garbage-collected. Possible restarts:
> 
> (0) Abort
> (1) Enter another variable
> (2) Enter new value for variable RESULTS
> (3) Listen to what Kaz says


Allow me to express my considerable skepticism at this story.

	Paul
From: Marco Antoniotti
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <T%_oe.59$mi7.89168@typhoon.nyu.edu>
alex goldman wrote:
> Marco Antoniotti wrote:
> 
>>>I had terrible experiences with Garbage Collection. I once spent over 2
>>>weeks doing numerical calculations on my workstation, and when they were
>>>finished, and I was about to print the results, it turned out that they
>>>were Garbage Collected :-(
>>>
>>>Happy computing, and don't forget to turn your Garbage Collector off.
>>
>>Well, that was your problem.  If you did not save the intermediate
>>results anywhere, then that was a semantic problem with your code.
> 
> 
> They got garbage-collected before I had a chance to save them.
> 
> LISP> (defvar results (long-calculations input-data))
> ;; 2 weeks later
> LISP> (save-to-disk results "/home/ag/results.data")
> 
> Error: too late, the contents of the variable RESULTS have been
> garbage-collected. Possible restarts:
> 
> (0) Abort
> (1) Enter another variable
> (2) Enter new value for variable RESULTS
> (3) Listen to what Kaz says

Then either you are using a bogus implementation of Common Lisp, as it 
clearly broke the semantics of the "assignment" and as the restart show, 
or - and more likely - you didn't RTFM about DEFVAR behavior.

The fault is still yours.

Cheers
--
Marco
From: alex goldman
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <9587567.K25mqb1HMU@yahoo.com>
Marco Antoniotti wrote:

> 
> 
> alex goldman wrote:
>> Marco Antoniotti wrote:
>> 
>>>>I had terrible experiences with Garbage Collection. I once spent over 2
>>>>weeks doing numerical calculations on my workstation, and when they were
>>>>finished, and I was about to print the results, it turned out that they
>>>>were Garbage Collected :-(
>>>>
>>>>Happy computing, and don't forget to turn your Garbage Collector off.
>>>
>>>Well, that was your problem.  If you did not save the intermediate
>>>results anywhere, then that was a semantic problem with your code.
>> 
>> 
>> They got garbage-collected before I had a chance to save them.
>> 
>> LISP> (defvar results (long-calculations input-data))
>> ;; 2 weeks later
>> LISP> (save-to-disk results "/home/ag/results.data")
>> 
>> Error: too late, the contents of the variable RESULTS have been
>> garbage-collected. Possible restarts:
>> 
>> (0) Abort
>> (1) Enter another variable
>> (2) Enter new value for variable RESULTS
>> (3) Listen to what Kaz says
> 
> Then either you are using a bogus implementation of Common Lisp, as it
> clearly broke the semantics of the "assignment" and as the restart show,
> or - and more likely - you didn't RTFM about DEFVAR behavior.

Jees, lighten up. Just for you, I even put in restart numero tres above.
From: Thomas A. Russ
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <ymiacm3uu18.fsf@sevak.isi.edu>
Marco Antoniotti <·······@cs.nyu.edu> writes:
> alex goldman wrote:
> > 
> > They got garbage-collected before I had a chance to save them.
> > 
> > LISP> (defvar results (long-calculations input-data))
> > ;; 2 weeks later
> > LISP> (save-to-disk results "/home/ag/results.data")
> > 
> > Error: too late, the contents of the variable RESULTS have been
> > garbage-collected. Possible restarts:
> > 
> > (0) Abort
> > (1) Enter another variable
> > (2) Enter new value for variable RESULTS
> > (3) Listen to what Kaz says
> 
> Then either you are using a bogus implementation of Common Lisp, as it 
> clearly broke the semantics of the "assignment" and as the restart show, 
> or - and more likely - you didn't RTFM about DEFVAR behavior.

Actually, I suspect that what is really bogus here is the purported
trace.  I think this is just some sort of GC troll.  Especially when one
considers restart (3) in the list above.  That can't be a real message.

Not to mention that one would not expect to get an error message like
the one listed above.

I think someone is trying to yank our chain.

-- 
Thomas A. Russ,  USC/Information Sciences Institute
From: Markus Grueneis
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <3gb86jFbl88tU1@individual.net>
* alex goldman wrote:
> [...]
> I had terrible experiences with Garbage Collection. I once spent over 2
> weeks doing numerical calculations on my workstation, and when they were
> finished, and I was about to print the results, it turned out that they
> were Garbage Collected :-(
>

I just started with PCL, but I didn't even dream of CL being so wise to 
recognize that some result are just garbage...

> Happy computing, and don't forget to turn your Garbage Collector off.
From: Brandon J. Van Every
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <_80oe.13289$M36.3021@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net>
alex goldman wrote:

>
>I had terrible experiences with Garbage Collection. I once spent over 2
>weeks doing numerical calculations on my workstation, and when they were
>finished, and I was about to print the results, it turned out that they
>were Garbage Collected :-(
>  
>
Meaning, that's why they took 2 weeks to calculate?  Or meaning, they 
were purged at the last moment because the garbage collector kicked in?

-- 
Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

"The pioneer is the one with the arrows in his back."
                          - anonymous entrepreneur
From: S.Marion
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <d7q6vv$f18$4@oheron.kent.ac.uk>
Thank's for that !

Would you please then be kind enough to fill in the form, so that we can 
analyse it a bit deeper?

Regards,

MARION Sebastien


>> I had terrible experiences with Garbage Collection. I once spent over 2
>> weeks doing numerical calculations on my workstation, and when they were
>> finished, and I was about to print the results, it turned out that they
>> were Garbage Collected :-(
>>  
From: Kaz Kylheku
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <1117827363.997959.62330@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>
S.Marion wrote:
> Thank's for that !
>
> Would you please then be kind enough to fill in the form, so that we can
> analyse it a bit deeper?
>
> Regards,
>
> MARION Sebastien
>
>
> >> I had terrible experiences with Garbage Collection. I once spent over 2
> >> weeks doing numerical calculations on my workstation, and when they were
> >> finished, and I was about to print the results, it turned out that they
> >> were Garbage Collected :-(

You failed the Garbage Collection Researcher Credentials Humor Test.

This has to do with knowing enough about a subject to tell whether
someone is joking about it or making serious assertions.

Also, it's   thanks   not   thank's  ...

... for playing.
From: William D Clinger
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <1117907019.307219.184000@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>
Kaz Kylheku wrote:
> This has to do with knowing enough about a subject to tell whether
> someone is joking about it or making serious assertions.

Speaking of which, is there another newsgroup on this
planet where someone would suggest that Richard Jones
and Sebastien Marion don't know much about garbage
collection?

Will
From: Raffael Cavallaro
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <2005060500393716807%raffaelcavallaro@pasdespamsilvousplaitdotmaccom>
On 2005-06-04 13:43:39 -0400, "William D Clinger" 
<··········@verizon.net> said:

> Kaz Kylheku wrote:
>> This has to do with knowing enough about a subject to tell whether
>> someone is joking about it or making serious assertions.
> 
> Speaking of which, is there another newsgroup on this
> planet where someone would suggest that Richard Jones
> and Sebastien Marion don't know much about garbage
> collection?

Given Sebastien's expertise in garbage collection one can most likely 
conclude that either:

a. Sebastien's somewhat ungrammatical reply requesting additional 
information was itself tongue in cheek.
b. Sebastien's somewhat ungrammatical reply was an automated response.
c. Sebastien's sarcasm detection deficit is not domain specific but 
most likely due to the fact that his native language is not english but 
french.[1]

my money is on c.


I think we should cut Sebastien some slack - it's unfair to expect 
non-native speakers to get sarcasm, especially in a context where one 
is expecting academic or professional discourse.

Sebastian and Richard, I don't have any personal experience with 
limitations imposed by gc, but I know that others have. Hopefully 
they'll take the time to fill out your web form.

Au nom de c.l.l je fais des excuses tr�s sinc�res. Bonne chance avec 
votre recherche.


[1] The first clue is the spelling of his name - in english it's 
usually spelled "ian" not "ien." The second is that his home page links 
to a website entirely in french that he did for his father's real 
estate business outside of Lyon.
From: Pascal Bourguignon
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <871x7j5lap.fsf@thalassa.informatimago.com>
"Brandon J. Van Every" <·····················@mycompanyname.com> writes:
> alex goldman wrote:
>
>>
>>I had terrible experiences with Garbage Collection. I once spent over 2
>>weeks doing numerical calculations on my workstation, and when they were
>>finished, and I was about to print the results, it turned out that they
>>were Garbage Collected :-(
>>  
>>
> Meaning, that's why they took 2 weeks to calculate?  Or meaning, they
> were purged at the last moment because the garbage collector kicked
> in?

[41]> (defparameter big-result (* 7 3 2))
BIG-RESULT
[42]> big-result
42
[43]> big-result
:garbage-collected
[44]> 

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/
Litter box not here.
You must have moved it again.
I'll poop in the sink. 
From: André Thieme
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <d7qeau$sc7$1@ulric.tng.de>
alex goldman schrieb:

> I had terrible experiences with Garbage Collection. I once spent over 2
> weeks doing numerical calculations on my workstation, and when they were
> finished, and I was about to print the results, it turned out that they
> were Garbage Collected :-(

*rofl*


Andr�
-- 
From: Kaz Kylheku
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <1117816165.526762.127190@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>
> Hello,
>
> We are interested in programmers' experiences of programming languages
> supported by managed runtimes (including but not limited to Java, C#, etc).
> In particular, we are interested in bugs and performance limitations that
> can be ascribed to the garbage collector.

We are interested in Western people's experiences with households
supported by managed utilities such as running water and electricity ..
From: Brandon J. Van Every
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <5b0oe.13291$M36.2771@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net>
Kaz Kylheku wrote:

>>Hello,
>>
>>We are interested in programmers' experiences of programming languages
>>supported by managed runtimes (including but not limited to Java, C#, etc).
>>In particular, we are interested in bugs and performance limitations that
>>can be ascribed to the garbage collector.
>>    
>>
>
>We are interested in Western people's experiences with households
>supported by managed utilities such as running water and electricity ..
>
>  
>
There are some great stories from Seattle's early days, when they had 
the sewage sluices elevated above the street, and the tides in the Puget 
Sound took action upon them!

-- 
Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

When no one else sells courage, supply and demand take hold.
From: ·········@cern.ch
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <yzopsv3iso8.fsf@cern.ch>
> In particular, we are interested in bugs and performance limitations
> that can be ascribed to the garbage collector.

Sorry, no such thing around comp.lang.lisp:-)

Ole
From: Jamie Border
Subject: Re: Garbage Collection Survey
Date: 
Message-ID: <d8217j$8ce$1@nwrdmz02.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com>
"S.Marion" <·····@kent.ac.uk> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> We are interested in programmers' experiences of programming languages
> supported by managed runtimes (including but not limited to Java, C#, 
> etc).
> In particular, we are interested in bugs and performance limitations that
> can be ascribed to the garbage collector.

Performance: The garbage collector can only carry a certain amount without 
hurting his back.
Accuracy: Sometimes objects are incorrectly identified as garbage (UPS 
deliveries).
Reliability: I used to have a GC that never washed.  He doubtless had plenty 
of bugs.

Seriously though, it would be interesting to see a 'fair and balanced' study 
(as opposed to flamewars) comparing GC-ascribed bugs / performance 
limitations and manual-memory-management- bugs / performance limitations.

My (unscientific) opinion is that GC[1] (particularly for C) provides a 
massive gain in programmer productivity for the price of a small performance 
tradeoff, and this tradeoff can be minimised with some awareness of 
GC-unfriendly algorithms.

My (newly-developed) opinion is that I have taken the red pill, and I'm 
feeling groovy, baby.

[1]: www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/

Jamie

>
> We would be grateful to receive any accounts of such problems encountered.
> If you think you can help, would you please complete the form located at
> http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/rpg/sm244/GCForm/
>
> Thank you for your assistance.
>
> Richard Jones
> Sebastien Marion