Re: Using Lua's memory allocator

[Gavin Wraith <gavin@...>]

In message <91EDF0BE-E3EF-435E-BA45-99FF0F4A05FD@gmail.com> you wrote:

> I think that I misunderstood your question. You are perhaps looking 
> for a *automatic* garbage collector for C. Lua is in this case *not* 
> what you are looking for! Lua garbage collector does not scan the 
> content of userdata (or any other type) to find "pointers" to used 
> data. An Lua value can be collected if it no more on the stack nor 
> referenced in another accessible Lua value. 

Sorry, I must have expressed myself badly. The content of the userdata
would not need any scanning. The items handled by the library do not
contain pointers to other items. That is a key simplifying aspect which I
should have mentioned. What the library implements is a first-order 
theory - passive data, and binary operations on them.

If I grab some memory using lua_newuserdata, and after using that memory
for the above-mentioned operations simply throw away the pointer to it 
(i.e. never push it on the Lua stack), then that memory will be reclaimed 
- have I got that right?

-- 
Gavin Wraith (gavin@wra1th.plus.com)
Home page: http://www.wra1th.plus.com/