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3.0 KiB
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21 lines
3.0 KiB
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>GC</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../G.html" title="G"/><link rel="previous" href="gawble.html" title="gawble"/><link rel="next" href="GCOS.html" title="GCOS"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">GC</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="gawble.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">G</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="GCOS.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="GC"/><dt xmlns="" id="GC"><b>GC</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/G·C/</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [from LISP terminology; <span class="firstterm">Garbage
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Collect</span>]</p></dd><dd><p> 1. <span class="grammar">vt.</span> To clean up and throw
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away useless things. “<span class="quote">I think I'll GC the top of my desk
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today.</span>” </p></dd><dd><p> 2. <span class="grammar">vt.</span> To recycle, reclaim, or
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put to another use. </p></dd><dd><p> 3. <span class="grammar">n.</span> An instantiation of the
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garbage collector process.</p></dd><dd><p><span class="firstterm">Garbage collection</span> is
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computer-science techspeak for a particular class of strategies for
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dynamically but transparently reallocating computer memory (i.e., without
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requiring explicit allocation and deallocation by higher-level software).
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One such strategy involves periodically scanning all the data in memory and
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determining what is no longer accessible; useless data items are then
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discarded so that the memory they occupy can be recycled and used for
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another purpose. Implementations of the LISP language usually use garbage
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collection.</p><p>In jargon, the full phrase is sometimes heard but the
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<a href="../A/abbrev.html"><i class="glossterm">abbrev</i></a> GC is more frequently used because it is
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shorter. Note that there is an ambiguity in usage that has to be resolved
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by context: “<span class="quote">I'm going to garbage-collect my desk</span>” usually
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means to clean out the drawers, but it could also mean to throw away or
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recycle the desk itself.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="gawble.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../G.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="GCOS.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">gawble </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> GCOS</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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