[REBOL] Re: Some other questions
From: joel:neely:fedex at: 23-Nov-2003 0:01
Hi, Mike,
Mike Loolard wrote:
> 4) In the same context:
> how do I actually 'free' memory/variables ?
>
You don't need to do so, as memory management in REBOL is automatic
(including collection of circular garbage). However, if you are
doing some processing of large structures, you can limit the need
for REBOL to go back to the O/S and ask for more memory by clearing
out stuff you no longer need. If you only have one word that refers
e.g. to a large block, you can simply set that word to a trivial value,
such as NONE, to make the previous contents available for garbage
collection.
blort: make block! 100000
repeat i 100000 [append blort sine i] ; whatever
; then, after that block is no longer needed...
blort: none
You can also use CLEAR to remove all values from a series (from the
current position). This can be handy if you want to reuse the space
after the initial contents are no longer needed.
blort: make block! 100000
repeat i 100000 [append blort sine i]
; do something with sines
clear blort
repeat i 100000 [append blort cosine i]
; do something with cosines
clear blort
repeat i 100000 [append blort tangent i]
; do something with tangents
;... etc.
But, again, unless you're working on huge structures, have a long-
lived process, and are running on a small-memory or slow box, there's
seldom any reason to worry about such things.
-jn-
