Re: memory allocation.
Apache uses a set of memory "pools" that are cleared at
different times. I.E. there is one pool that is freed
at the end of each page request. So code can just allocate
from that pool and not worry about it getting freed.
Perhaps a pool for each transaction could be used.
I'm not 100% sure I like this idea -- I kind of think that
a hallmark of a good programmer is taking care of his
mallocs and frees, but it is probably faster.
Oh, and I'm not too keen on alloca() either.
-- cary