in reply to Re^2: Avoiding memory loss...
in thread Avoiding memory loss...
> No, perl doesn't use a garbage collector.
most probably a problem of fuzzy terminology¹, perldoc talks about "garbage collection":
Perl uses a fast and simple, reference-based garbage collection system
see perlobj#Two-Phased-Garbage-Collection
But as opposed to mark-and-sweep Perl's runtime approach is very simple an efficient.
OTOH it can't handle circular references.
And even if mark-and-sweep was used, IIRC Python does it and is still very performant. ²
Cheers Rolf
UPDATES:
¹) from perlglossary
garbage collection A misnamed feature--it should be called, "expecting your mo +ther to pick up after you". Strictly speaking, Perl doesn’t do thi +s, but it relies on a reference-counting mechanism to keep things +tidy. However, we rarely speak strictly and will often refer to t +he reference-counting scheme as a form of garbage collection. + (If it’s any comfort, when your interpreter exits, a "real" gar +bage collector runs to make sure everything is cleaned up if you +’ve been messy with circular references and such.)
²) more complicated: "While Python uses the traditional reference counting implementation, it also offers a cycle detector that works to detect reference cycles."
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