GCspråk

GCspråk, short for Garbage Collection language, is a hypothetical programming language used in computer science to study memory management and garbage collection strategies. It is commonly described in academic literature as a tool for comparing tracing collectors, reference counting, and hybrid approaches under controlled conditions, with the aim of isolating how language features influence GC behavior rather than application logic.

Design goals emphasize observability of memory usage, reproducible measurements, and modular GC implementations. Programs written in GCspråk are designed to expose allocation sites and object lifetimes, allowing researchers to quantify allocation rates, pause times, and memory overhead across different GC configurations. The language typically abstracts away platform-specific details, enabling portable experiments across multiple runtimes or simulator environments.

Core features commonly described include static typing with optional type inference, first-class functions, and a heap model where most objects are managed by the GC. The language provides configurable GC strategies, such as generational, incremental, or compaction collectors; supports weak references and finalizers; and offers both automatic memory management and optional hints for manual memory arenas in experiments.

As an academic tool, GCspråk is intended for teaching and research rather than production use. Reference implementations exist in teaching environments, and researchers publish metrics derived from GC behavior on diversified workloads. While it serves to illustrate trade-offs among collectors, it remains a simplification of real-world runtimes and memory models.

See also memory management, garbage collection, programming language design.