Info about Lobster?

Describe the issue

V's memory management model is based on the one from the Lobster programming language:

https://aardappel.github.io/lobster/memory_management.html

However this info isn't mentioned anywhere on V's homepage or documentation. As a result, this question gets raised repeatedly on Discord and other platforms.

I would like to suggest mentioning Lobster's memory management model on V's website/docs. A sentence like "V's memory management model is inspired by the Lobster programming language." should suffice.

Potential places where this info could be added:

- 'Acknowledgement' section in the Readme:
https://github.com/vlang/v#acknowledgement

- 'Memory management' section in the docs:
https://github.com/vlang/v/blob/master/doc/docs.md#memory-management

- 'Innovative and flexible memory management' section on V's homepage:
https://vlang.io/#memory

Links

https://github.com/vlang/v#acknowledgement
https://github.com/vlang/v/blob/master/doc/docs.md#memory-management
https://vlang.io/#memory

[JalonSolov]

Alex has always said V's memory management is based on the Lobster model.

However, I don't know how similar it is, these days - whether it should link to those docs, or whether it simply needs a write-up on it's own.

In any case, I'm not sure this is a high priority item.

[i582]

@JalonSolov memory management is probably one of the most important components of the language. When you write "innovative memory management system" you are just marketing, and when there is no description AT ALL, it becomes like a something bad.

Lack of documentation just makes the language less obvious to users. Moreover, increases the number of so-called trolls.

Even just mentioning that the system is based on Lobster removes a lot of questions.

[JalonSolov]

I agree that memory management is an important aspect of a language. I don't see documenting it as more important than making it all work properly.

Yes, it does need to be properly documented at some point, including similarities/differences with other systems, etc.

To clarify, I was referring to autofree. I was left with this impression from:

- discussions on Discord (you can search for "lobster" and sort by oldest comments first)
- comments on Reddit by /u/volt_dev (I assume this is Alex?)

[JalonSolov]

V's current memory management is loosely documented here: https://github.com/vlang/v/blob/master/doc/docs.md#memory-management

While Lobster memory management isn't mentioned, it was mainly used for ideas, not implemented directly.

[Wajinn]

Maybe the confusion is over "inspired by" versus "implementing something similar". As best that I can ascertain, V is only referencing the concept (which existed before Lobster) of compile time memory management, not copying or creating a variation of the Lobster implementation.

Maybe it might be better to mention autofree in that context, as a compile time memory management system, versus tightly linking it to some other language where goals and implementations are significantly different from each other.

[medvednikov]

It's not based on Lobster. I designed it before I came across Lobster. It's similar to Lobster and Nim. That's it.

It uses very simple compile time management principles. It's described in detail on the home page:

Autofree can be enabled with -autofree. It takes care of most objects (~90-100%): the compiler inserts necessary free calls automatically during compilation. Remaining small percentage of objects is freed via GC.

That's all there's to it.