- __strong pointers, preventing objects from being freed
_ __weak pointers are automatically freed when the last remaining __strong pointer goes away
- objc_gc_{retain,release}_np() functions, which can be used to implement CFRetain() and CFRelease() (adds an reference count - the object will not be collected until after its last retain is gone.
Removed GNU dtable and sparse array implementations, replaced entirely now with versions based on the Étoilé runtime. Performance is roughly equivalent in microbenchmarks, memory usage is significantly lower (Gorm goes from 95MB to 50MB on my machine - this will be even more pronounced on 64-bit systems), which should improve cache usage considerably. Still room for some performance tuning, however.
I now have an out-of-tree replacement for the dtable stuff, so sarray.{h,c} will be going away soon. The replacement offers similar (slightly worse currently) performance in microbenchmarks, but uses half as much memory (Gorm goes from 95MB to 48MB on my machine). This will be committed once it's been tweaked a little bit.
Imported selector table code frm the Étoilé runtime. We can now make dispatch type dependent with a -D switch. Not enabled yet, but it will be enabled in a warning mode soon - I consider preferable to the existing GNU and Apple solution of corrupting the stack.