garbage collector and the error reporting system.
Memory blocks that are associated with Scheme objects (for example a
-smob) should be allocated with @code{scm_gc_malloc} or
+foreign object) should be allocated with @code{scm_gc_malloc} or
@code{scm_gc_malloc_pointerless}. These two functions will either
return a valid pointer or signal an error. Memory blocks allocated this
-way can be freed with @code{scm_gc_free}; however, this is not strictly
-needed: memory allocated with @code{scm_gc_malloc} or
-@code{scm_gc_malloc_pointerless} is automatically reclaimed when the
-garbage collector no longer sees any live reference to it@footnote{In
-Guile up to version 1.8, memory allocated with @code{scm_gc_malloc}
-@emph{had} to be freed with @code{scm_gc_free}.}.
+way may be released explicitly; however, this is not strictly needed,
+and we recommend @emph{not} calling @code{scm_gc_free}. All memory
+allocated with @code{scm_gc_malloc} or @code{scm_gc_malloc_pointerless}
+is automatically reclaimed when the garbage collector no longer sees any
+live reference to it@footnote{In Guile up to version 1.8, memory
+allocated with @code{scm_gc_malloc} @emph{had} to be freed with
+@code{scm_gc_free}.}.
Memory allocated with @code{scm_gc_malloc} is scanned for live pointers.
This means that if @code{scm_gc_malloc}-allocated memory contains a
@deftypefn {C Function} void scm_gc_free (void *@var{mem}, size_t @var{size}, const char *@var{what})
Explicitly free the memory block pointed to by @var{mem}, which was
-previously allocated by one of the above @code{scm_gc} functions.
+previously allocated by one of the above @code{scm_gc} functions. This
+function is almost always unnecessary, except for codebases that still
+need to compile on Guile 1.8.
Note that you need to explicitly pass the @var{size} parameter. This
is done since it should normally be easy to provide this parameter
It is especially important to call this function when large unmanaged
allocations, like images, may be freed by small Scheme allocations, like
-SMOBs.
+foreign objects.
@end deftypefn