Teaching garbage collection with open source virtual machine

  • Authors:
  • Delvin C. Defoe

  • Affiliations:
  • Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, IN, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 2011 conference on Information technology education
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

Garbage collection is an integral and fundamental component of every modern memory-managed programming language platform such as Java and Microsoft .Net. Yet, few Computer Science and Information Technology programs offer students a course on garbage collection. High tech companies wish that their new employees knew something about garbage collection as this would help them with decisions concerning languages that are most appropriate for implementing software solutions on behalf of their clients. To address this limitation, we have created a junior level undergraduate garbage collection course that gives students practical experience in exploring, designing, and implementing garbage collection algorithms in the context of an open source virtual machine. We have taught this course twice and on both occasions students were pleased with their learning experience.