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points by ajasmin 3 days ago | 0 comments

No. Arena really is what a pool allocatable memory is called.

The article claims the term first appear in V6 Unix though I couldn't tell you why it's called that.

It does help prevent confusion, though, a memory "arena" and a memory "area" don't both mean the same thing.

I'd propose "colosseum" for a really big arena such as one used by a compacting GC, and "skyrim" for a scrollback buffer (holds elderly scroll-text), but they'd never catch on.

[–] mac3n 2 days ago

I remember these as `AREA` variables in PL/I, back in the day. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Region-based_memory_management...> implies the term AREA was introduced in 1990.