Tracing and generational Garbage Collectors

[silviob36]

Hello,
I've two questions about garbage collectors:
What information should a compiler provide in the runtime, for a tracing collector to work?
And then, what is the technique of generational garbage collection?

Sorry for my bad english!
Thanks!

[WingedPanther]

Did you have a specific language in mind, or is this pure theory? This sounds suspiciously like homework, so a guess on your part would help.

[silviob36]

It is pure theory...
I found lots of informations about the two questions on the internet, but don't know what are the most important aspect...

[alienkinetics]

If I understand the question correctly, I would say:

1) Reference Count - So you know when an object is garbage.
2) Time Created - So you know how long an object has been garbage.
3) Memory Size - So you know the gains you receive by destroying an object.
4) Type of Object - So you know if you can reuse the object.

Unless I have miss understood what you are asking.