Memory Pool System
Encyclopedia
The Memory Pool System is a flexible and modular memory management
system that was developed by Harlequin
to support both their ScriptWorks PostScript
RIP
, and their Harlequin Dylan compiler and IDE for the Dylan programming language
. As such it was designed to support a wide range of requirements from high-speed manual memory management, to complex garbage collection
with many different types of reference
.
Some time after Harlequin's funding crisis in 1998, Global Graphics
sold the MPS to Ravenbrook Limited, a small Cambridge
-based consultancy company, along with the Memory Management Referencehttp://www.memorymanagement.org/. In 2002, Ravenbrook announced that the MPS would be open sourced
.
Memory management
Memory management is the act of managing computer memory. The essential requirement of memory management is to provide ways to dynamically allocate portions of memory to programs at their request, and freeing it for reuse when no longer needed. This is critical to the computer system.Several...
system that was developed by Harlequin
Harlequin (software company)
Harlequin was formerly a technology company based in Cambridge, UK and Cambridge, Massachusetts. They specialized in printing applications, graphical applications, law enforcement applications, and programming language implementations...
to support both their ScriptWorks PostScript
PostScript
PostScript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982. It is best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. Adobe PostScript 3 is also the worldwide printing and imaging...
RIP
Raster image processor
A raster image processor is a component used in a printing system which produces a raster image also known as a bitmap. The bitmap is then sent to a printing device for output. The input may be a page description in a high-level page description language such as PostScript, Portable Document...
, and their Harlequin Dylan compiler and IDE for the Dylan programming language
Dylan programming language
Dylan is a multi-paradigm programming language that includes support for functional and object-oriented programming, and is dynamic and reflective while providing a programming model designed to support efficient machine code generation, including fine-grained control over dynamic and static...
. As such it was designed to support a wide range of requirements from high-speed manual memory management, to complex garbage collection
Garbage collection (computer science)
In computer science, garbage collection is a form of automatic memory management. The garbage collector, or just collector, attempts to reclaim garbage, or memory occupied by objects that are no longer in use by the program...
with many different types of reference
Reference (computer science)
In computer science, a reference is a value that enables a program to indirectly access a particular data item, such as a variable or a record, in the computer's memory or in some other storage device. The reference is said to refer to the data item, and accessing those data is called...
.
Some time after Harlequin's funding crisis in 1998, Global Graphics
Global Graphics
Global Graphics SA is a group of companies known for their digital printing products, including the Harlequin and Jaws RIPs. In May 2009 the company launched gDoc Fusion, an edocument builder software application designed for ease of use to create, review, edit, share and archive PDF and XPS...
sold the MPS to Ravenbrook Limited, a small Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
-based consultancy company, along with the Memory Management Referencehttp://www.memorymanagement.org/. In 2002, Ravenbrook announced that the MPS would be open sourced
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
.