Reading Exercise #8
Due 8:00 AM, Monday March 7, 2016
for Chapter 7.7.3 (pp 357-367) of the Scott Text.

Content of reading exercise #8

  1. What is the advantage of automatic garbage collection? Are there any disadvantages?
  2. Explain how reference counting works?
  3. How does the mark and sweep process work?
  4. In what way is the stop and copy mechanism more efficient than mark and sweep?
  5. Are there some disadvantages to the stop and copy approach? If so, what are they?
  6. Describe how generational garbage collection works.
  7. Explain how it's possible to run mark and sweep without being able to find pointers?