Remove ref_from from

[bandurvp]

If the current GC approach is to pass NULL as ref_from then remove it from TVP.

[bandurvp]

@peterwvj can you confirm whether there is any situation currently where the code generator emits anything other than NULL as the from parameter to GC calls?

[peterwvj]

@bandurvp it should all be contained in the GC transformation yes.

[bandurvp]

Right, and in there there is no case in which it emits something like &res instead of NULL?

[peterwvj]

I'm pretty sure we got rid of all of that at one point. We only pass NULL.

[bandurvp]

Hi @peterwvj , I want to attempt to remove all traces of NULL and ref_from from the garbage collector if it's not used. You said earlier that it's all in the GC transformation. What I plan to do is to temporarily duplicate all the GC operations in the runtime but without the from parameter and then remove the part of the GC transformation that puts in this parameter value. Is there anything else I should conisder?

[peterwvj]

Hi @bandurvp . I don't think there's anything else to consider, but I could be wrong.

Wouldn't it be better/safer to simply remove the "NULL parameter" from the function definitions in the runtime (rather than duplicating them). Otherwise the approach sounds fine.

[bandurvp]

That would be the final approach, I was just thinking that this would be just a way of organizing the change. But if I think about it there isn't really an advantage to it, thanks! I'll let you know how things come out. Can I merge your branch into development and branch from there?

[peterwvj]

Yes, absolutely 👌