Memory and regions

Use case: scratch that dies early

fn work() -> int {
    let keep = "outer"
    region {
        let scratch = str_join(["a", "b", "c"], "-")
        print scratch
    }
    print keep
    return 7
}

fn main(caps: Caps) -> int {
    return work()
}

Memory lives in arenas
The compiler works out when values that never leave a function can die
region { } opens a sub-arena so temporary work can reclaim sooner

vow explain tests/lang/arena_local.vow

What this is not

Not a garbage collector
Not manual malloc/free
Analysis is intraprocedural and conservative — see Limitations

Measured cold start / size: /BENCHMARKS.md.

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