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by rayneorshine
59 days ago
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>Having a garbage collector makes so many compiler algorithms and data structures easier. Does it really?
Compilers tend to be programs that just appends a bunch of data to lists, hashmaps, queues and trees, processes it, then shuts down.
So you can just make append-only data structures and not care too much about freeing stuff. I never worry about memory management when I write compilers in C. |
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This is true if you're writing a batch mode compiler. But if you're writing a compiler that is integrated into an IDE where it is continuously updating the semantic state based on user edits, there is a whole lot more mutability going on and no clear time when you can free everything.