Hi all,

I'm currently evaluating Ada as an alternative to C++ for scientific programming. I have a simple test program that within its main loop repeatedly calls the following procedure:

procedure Propagate is
   Access_Temp : constant Access_Probability_Field
     := Access_New_Field;
begin
   Access_New_Field.all := (others => (others => (others => 0.0)));
   
   for Nx in -Fringe_Index .. Fringe_Index loop
   -- Fringe_Index = about 50
      for Ny in -Fringe_Index .. Fringe_Index loop
         for Ntheta in Angle_Index'Range loop
         -- Range = 0 .. 199
            begin -- why do I need this?
               for W of Weight_Vectors (Ntheta) loop
-- Weight_Vectors (Ntheta) is a Vector of type Ada.Containers.Vectors
-- (Element_Type => Weight, Index_Type => Natural), where Weight is defined as
-- subtype Pixel_Offset is Integer range -Max_Offset .. Max_Offset;
-- type Weight is record
--   Nx, Ny : Pixel_Offset;
--   W : Long_Float;
-- end record;
                  for D_Index in Angular_Propagator'Range loop
                     Access_New_Field
                       (Nx + W.Nx, Ny + W.Ny, Ntheta + D_Index)
                       := Access_New_Field --  (Nx, Ny + 1, Ntheta)
                       (Nx + W.Nx, Ny + W.Ny, Ntheta + D_Index)
                       + Access_Old_Field (Nx, Ny, Ntheta) * W.W
                       * Angular_Propagator (D_Index);
                  end loop;
               end loop;
            end;
         end loop;
      end loop;
   end loop;
   Access_New_Field := Access_Old_Field;
   Access_Old_Field := Access_Temp;
end Propagate;

Access_New_Field and Access_Old_Field are of type access Probability_Field, where

   type Probability_Field is array
     (Pixel_Index'Range, Pixel_Index'Range, Angle_Index'Range)
     of Long_Float;

   subtype Pixel_Index is Integer range
     -(Fringe_Index + Max_Offset) .. (Fringe_Index + Max_Offset);

my main loop looks like this:

      Access_New_Field := new Probability_Field;
      Access_Old_Field := new Probability_Field;

      for K in 1 .. No_Iterations loop
         Put_Line ("Iteration " & Integer'Image (K));
         Propagate;
      end loop;

What I don't get is that if I comment out the above "begin/end" lines,
then memory usage increases with No_iterations and for No_iterations = 8 
reaches about 550 MB. Including begin/end reduces memory usage to 37MB (then independent of No_iterations, as it should be). For what it's worth, I'm using the following compiler flags (with GNAT GPL 2011 on Mac OS X 10.7.4, 2010 MacBook Pro):

gnatmake -o Main Main -P"/Users/sebastian/Documents/Studium/Research/hard-disk-disorder/lattice-propagator/release.gpr" -g -cargs -gnatq -gnatQ -bargs  -largs 


gcc -c -gnatQ -O3 -gnatp -gnat2012 -g -gnatq -gnatQ -I- -gnatA [�]/Main.adb
gcc -c -gnatQ -O3 -gnatp -gnat2012 -g -gnatq -gnatQ -I- -gnatA [�]/lattice_propagator.adb
gcc -c -gnatQ -O3 -gnatp -gnat2012 -g -gnatq -gnatQ -I- -gnatA [�]/geometry.adb
gnatbind -E -static -I- -x [�]/obj/main.ali
gnatlink [�]/obj/main.ali -g -o [�]/build/Main

Is this expected behaviour? If yes, could someone please explain what's going on internally?
Best regards,
Sebastian