Block structures, indirect addressing, and garbage collection
- 1 July 1969
- journal article
- Published by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in Communications of the ACM
- Vol. 12 (7) , 395-398
- https://doi.org/10.1145/363156.363175
Abstract
Programming languages have included explicit or implicit block structures to provide a naming convenience for the programmer. However, when indirect addressing is used, as in SNOBOL, naming constraints may be introduced. Two modifications to SNOBOL are described, resulting in two desirable consequences: (1) naming constraints disappear even when there is indirect addressing within function definitions; and (2) there is a significant saving in the number of calls to the garbage collector, because some garbage is collected, at little expense, each time a function returns to its calling program. These modifications have been implemented as an extension to a SNOBOL dialect.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- An efficient machine-independent procedure for garbage collection in various list structuresCommunications of the ACM, 1967
- String processing techniquesCommunications of the ACM, 1967