Use cases for WeakMap
Allen Wirfs-Brock
allen at wirfs-brock.com
Mon May 16 13:46:51 PDT 2011
On May 16, 2011, at 11:37 AM, Oliver Hunt wrote:
> The same logic applies to object hashcodes -- an object must always produce the same hashcode which means it will need to store it -- having a secondary map doesn't help you, because that map will itself require a hascode. However making every object always have space to store a hashcode is wasteful of memory, so essentially some form of "private name" must be used. I think i saw someone (Erik?) say that this is what v8 does.
Old trick that works well when you have a copying collector:
Hashes are initially stored, on first demand, in a side-table that is a hash table keyed by the current address of an object. When an object is moved by the collector it checks to see if the object has a hashcode in the side table. If so, it adds a slot at the new location of the object and stores the hashcode in that slot. It also removes the entry from the side table.
This requires 2 bits in the object header to represent the following states:
Object's hash has not been accessed so it is unassigned.
Object's hash is in the side-table.
Object's hash is in the hash slot.
If you can generate a suitable hash value based upon the object's current address you don't actually need the side-table.
If you want to have a readonly header that is ROM-able you can either always assign a hash slot to such objects or you can always keep their hash in the side-table.
allen
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