Re: cell

[Martin Grabmueller]

> From: Masao Uebayashi <address@hidden>
> Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 14:33:49 +0900
> 
> I overlooked the section ``Conservative GC'' in the topic ``Data
> Representation in Guile''. (I noticed this in train car just after
> having posted.) The section clearly states what a ``cell'' in Guile
> is:
> 
>   Every heap object has a two-word header, called a "cell".
>   ...

[ guile gurus: please correct me when I'm wrong ]

The manual is not quite up-to-date wrt cells.  It's right that most
objects have a two-word header, but in the meantime so-called `double
cells' have been introduced, which are four-word cells.  They are used
for some data types (such as real numbers IIRC) to avoid an extra
memory reference when accessing the data portion of an object.

Regards,
  'martin