it still has quite a few. @xref{Contributed Modules}.
@menu
-* Things Which Might Be In The Next ANSI Standard::
+* Garbage Collection::
+* Metaobject Protocol::
* Support For Unix::
* Customization Hooks for Users::
* Tools To Help Developers::
-* Resolution of Name Conflicts::
+* Resolution of Name Conflicts::
* Stale Extensions::
* Efficiency Hacks::
@end menu
-@node Things Which Might Be In The Next ANSI Standard
+@node Garbage Collection
@comment node-name, next, previous, up
-@section Things Which Might Be In The Next ANSI Standard
-
-SBCL provides extensive support for calling external C code,
-@ref{Foreign Function Interface}.
+@section Garbage Collection
SBCL provides additional garbage collection functionality not
specified by ANSI. Weak pointers allow references to objects to be
-maintained without keeping them from being GCed (garbage
-collected). And ``finalization'' hooks are available to cause code to
-be executed when an object has been GCed.
-@c <!-- FIXME: Actually documenting these would be good.:-| -->
-
-SBCL supports @dfn{Gray streams}, user-overloadable CLOS classes whose
-instances can be used as Lisp streams (e.g. passed as the first
-argument to @code{format}). Additionally, the bundled contrib module
-@dfn{sb-simple-streams} implements a subset of the Franz Allegro
-simple-streams proposal.
-
-SBCL supports a MetaObject Protocol which is intended to be compatible
+maintained without keeping them from being garbage collected, and
+``finalization'' hooks are available to cause code to be executed when
+an object has been garbage collected. Additionally users can specify
+their own cleanup actions to be executed with garbage collection.
+
+@include fun-sb-ext-finalize.texinfo
+@include fun-sb-ext-cancel-finalization.texinfo
+@include fun-sb-ext-make-weak-pointer.texinfo
+@include fun-sb-ext-weak-pointer-value.texinfo
+@include var-sb-ext-star-after-gc-hooks-star.texinfo
+
+@node Metaobject Protocol
+@comment node-name, next, previous, up
+@section Metaobject Protocol
+
+SBCL supports a metaobject protocol which is intended to be compatible
with AMOP; present exceptions to this (as distinct from current bugs)
are:
@section Efficiency Hacks
The @code{sb-ext:purify} function causes SBCL first to collect all
-garbage, then to mark all uncollected objects as permanent, never
-again attempting to collect them as garbage. This can cause a large
-increase in efficiency when using a primitive garbage collector, or a
-more moderate increase in efficiency when using a more sophisticated
-garbage collector which is well suited to the program's memory usage
-pattern. It also allows permanent code to be frozen at fixed
-addresses, a precondition for using copy-on-write to share code
-between multiple Lisp processes. it is less important with modern
-generational garbage collectors.
+garbage, then to mark all uncollected objects as permanent, never again
+attempting to collect them as garbage. This can cause a large increase
+in efficiency when using a primitive garbage collector, or a more
+moderate increase in efficiency when using a more sophisticated garbage
+collector which is well suited to the program's memory usage pattern. It
+also allows permanent code to be frozen at fixed addresses, a
+precondition for using copy-on-write to share code between multiple Lisp
+processes. This is less important with modern generational garbage
+collectors, but not all SBCL platforms use such a garbage collector.
@include fun-sb-ext-purify.texinfo
projects / sbcl.git / blobdiff