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1 point by bOR_ 5939 days ago | link | parent

at least in agent-based models, printing is not the thing that is happening so often that consing up a new list is prohibitive.

How much more expensive is cons compared to multiple return values? I remember there being a long discussion against mrvs.



2 points by stefano 5938 days ago | link

> How much more expensive is cons compared to multiple return values?

It depends on the GC used and on the implementation. mrvs are usually pushed on the stack, so there is no GC overhead. When I develop applications with Lisp, I notice that most of the time reducing the amount of garbage speeds up the program noticeably. It's not only a problem of consing, it's also a problem of collecting the garbage. More garabage, more collection cycles.

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