MEMORY MANAGEMENT USING OBJECT POINTER STRUCTURE

There is described a method of accurately scanning the C stack. One technique for solving these problems is to indirectly reference objects using handles however the some JVMs have removed handles to gain a performance improvement. The embodiment describes a solution in which 32 bit quantities are known to be object references by means of some side information. This avoids the problem of integer values masquerading as references causing objects to be needlessly retained. It also allows employment of a compacting collector which is allowed to move objects even if they are referenced from the stacks. Currently the compactor is prevented from moving such objects leading to reduced compaction efficiency.