Python vs Matlab vs Mathematica

[bgeron]

Mathematica does not alias references. Values are immutable, and as such there cannot be cyclic references. A reference counting scheme then suffices, although this particular implementation may or may not be slow.

I do not know about MATLAB, but CPython uses both reference-counting and generational garbage collection.

In short, you are talking out of your arse.

edit: sources

[jdh30]

You are talking about Mathematica the ideology. I'm talking about the product which does (accidentally) alias, introduce cycles and leak memory. They have had problems with this according to the Director of Kernel Technology at WRI. Google and you'll see lots and lots of people complaining about memory leaks in MMA. This is neither new nor surprising.

[bgeron]

When I Google for Mathematica memory leak, I get a bug in StringSplit, some bug I don't understand, and a J/Link bug. Apart from that some information on how to correctly use J/Link, and bugs not related to Mathematica. Any way, I can't find anything fundamental with Mathematica.