The lost art (Was: The VAX is running

[Cameron Kaiser]

> Always.  The major problem with the MS-BASIC garbage collection was
> with the user experience.  Gates chose rapid allocation through a
> top-of-heap pointer rather using a heap walker.  While there was
> enough space for allocations, allocations were fast, but reallocation
> was impossible except at the top of the heap.  Once garbage collection
> starts it must proceed to completion.  The user experience, with
> sufficiently large memory, was of the computer hanging.  Most users
> would power cycle rather than wait.

But this wasn't true of all Microsoft BASIC derivatives. Notably the 
Commodore 128 had a tremendously optimized garbage collector, allowing
collection within seconds even at 1MHz, and even being the slowest of the
Commodore 8-bit BASICs. It was night and day compared to the C64.

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  Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com
-- There are few problems that the liberal usage of high explosives can't cure.