(no subject)

[Geoff Canyon]

At 12:05 AM +0000 3/20/02, Martin Baxter wrote:
>>Yates, Glen <JAMES.G.YATES at saic.com> Wrote:
>>
>>If indeed Rev allocates memory from the system
>>heap, then to optimize memory usage on a low memory mac, you should decrease
>>the applications memory partition from the "Get Info" window. That will
>>leave more memory available for the system heap to grow into.
>>
>>-Glen Yates
>>
>
>That's true enough Glen, however, it is not my idea of a solution. More a
>remedy of desperation.
>The solution is surely for the application to not do that in the first
>place. I can't believe it's really necessary, and it makes your computer
>crash.

The thing is, on OS X, Unix, and Windows > 95 (98?) an app that needs more memory simply has to ask for it. The system takes care of getting the memory for it, and if it dips into virtual memory, no problem. 

On Mac OS <=9, there is no way for an application to get more memory than you assign it _in its own partition_. This means that if you assign 2MB to an older Mac application and ask it to do something that requires 3MB, it will either: refuse; die gracefully; die horribly, possibly taking the OS with it.

The system heap, on the other hand, is dynamic, and available to other applications. That's why many newer applications -- including Revolution -- allocate memory that way. As others have said, you can change the behavior of the standalones you build.

regards,

Geoff