A developer is building an ACID-compliant database engine in C#, directly confronting the common criticism that garbage collection makes managed languages unsuitable for high-performance systems software. The post details specific techniques to minimize GC pauses, such as using structs, pooling, and careful memory layout. It argues that with modern .NET improvements and disciplined coding, C# can compete with C++ or Rust in this domain. This perspective is valuable for database engineers and C# developers interested in pushing the boundaries of the platform. The discussion also touches on the trade-offs between developer productivity and raw performance, making it a thought-provoking read for anyone involved in systems programming.
The author challenges the assumption that garbage collection disqualifies C# for building high-performance ACID database engines. They present technical strategies to mitigate GC pauses and argue that managed languages can be viable for systems-level software.