Install libmps with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• mpseventcnv
• mpseventpy
• mpseventtxt

Project history

Ravenbrook's documentation states that MPS has been in development since 1994 and deployed in successful commercial products since 1997. The project originated in the commercial language-runtime and printing-software world, where precise control over allocation strategy and garbage collection behavior mattered more than a one-size allocator.

The public kit readme is dated May 20, 2002 and describes a complete source and documentation distribution. The repository later became available under the BSD 2-clause license, with manuals, design documents, tests, and small tools such as event converters packaged around the core memory manager.

Adoption history

MPS is not a mass-market command-line tool; its adoption is as infrastructure inside runtimes and applications that need custom memory policy. Ravenbrook's overview emphasizes commercial deployment beginning in 1997 and supported platforms including Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and macOS.

In package-manager form, libmps gives Unix users a packaged build of a specialized allocator and garbage collector that would otherwise be built directly from a vendor source kit.

How it is used

Developers integrate MPS by compiling the C source and linking it into their application, then creating arenas and pools appropriate to their object model. The manual positions it as a system that can cooperate with malloc/free or C++ new/delete rather than requiring an immediate rewrite of all memory management.

Why package nerds care

MPS is package-nerd bait because it is a serious, documented garbage collector and memory-pool framework that ships as a plain C library. It sits in the uncommon zone between academic GC papers, commercial runtime engineering, and Unix packaging.

Timeline

• 1994: MPS development begins, according to Ravenbrook's documentation.
• 1997: MPS is deployed in successful commercial products, according to Ravenbrook's documentation.
• 2002-05-20: Public MPS kit readme is authored by Richard Brooksby.
• 2006: The readme document history records maintenance updates and merges.
• 2020s: The GitHub repository and Read the Docs manual provide the public source and documentation surface.

Related projects

• The official documentation discusses cooperation with conventional C and C++ allocators. Ravenbrook's ISMM paper connects the system to Harlequin-era runtime work, including Harlequin Dylan and ScriptWorks.

Sources

• https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/libmps
• https://github.com/Ravenbrook/mps
• https://memory-pool-system.readthedocs.io/
• https://www.ravenbrook.com/project/mps
• https://www.ravenbrook.com/project/mps/doc/2002-01-30/ismm2002-paper/ismm2002-a4.pdf