rename arena to memorypool #48295
Merged
rename arena to memorypool #48295
Conversation
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
clintjedwards
approved these changes
Jan 21, 2026
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.
Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.
Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.
You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.
Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.
This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.
Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.
Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.
Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
After discussing with some folks about terminology, I think "arena" is not the best term for what we're doing in this module. While "arena" is often used in scenarios where memory is preallocated, which we are doing, it typically refers to the ability/act to do mass freeing of objects within that memory, especially of objects without destructors, and that's not us. We don't do any mass freeing and all of our objects have destructors (drop methods).
Selecting "memorypool" as a new name for the module, in part because it's generic enough give us leeway as to what exactly goes on in the module, and also because Zig uses this name for their built-in slab-like allocator which is very close to what we are actually doing.