Xref: utzoo comp.sys.next:5647 comp.sys.mac:51722 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!dali!milton!blake!Tomobiki-Cho!mrc From: mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU (Mark Crispin) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next,comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: NeXT Review;Quite a machine, but not a Mac Message-ID: <6453@blake.acs.washington.edu> Date: 29 Mar 90 23:09:42 GMT References: <404@toaster.SFSU.EDU> <9942@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> <6329@blake.acs.washington.edu> <9958@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> <419@toaster.SFSU.EDU> <33411@shemp.CS.UCLA. <85206@tiger.oxy.edu> Sender: news@blake.acs.washington.edu Organization: Mendou Zaibatsu, Tomobiki-Cho, Butsumetsu-Shi Lines: 26 I just remembered another "feature" about the Mac, which reminds me why I intend never again to do software development on the Mac platform. Like MS-DOS, the Mac operating system splits memory into 64K segment; no object may be larger than that. So, if you need a 100,000 character string, you have to split it into chunks. Also, there's no memory mapping, so system memory management is done by shuffling. The way they do this is by a bizarre system of double- indirect pointers. Although this is OK for memory-tight systems, it's a lot of work for the programmer to keep track and for large memory systems this is slower than allocating enough memory for the application to begin with and shuffling it to a larger chunk with a single base register than making all those double-indirect references. I guess this was all for CP/M compatibility. ;-) _____ ____ ---+--- /-\ Mark Crispin Atheist & Proud _|_|_ _|_ || ___|__ / / 6158 Lariat Loop NE R90/6 pilot |_|_|_| /|\-++- |=====| / / Bainbridge Island, WA "Gaijin! Gaijin!" --|-- | |||| |_____| / \ USA 98110-2098 "Gaijin ha doko ka?" /|\ | |/\| _______ / \ +1 (206) 842-2385 "Niichan ha gaijin." / | \ | |__| / \ / \ mrc@CAC.Washington.EDU "Chigau. Gaijin ja nai. kisha no kisha ga kisha de kisha-shita Omae ha gaijin darou." sumomo mo momo, momo mo momo, momo ni mo iroiro aru "Iie, boku ha nihonjin." uraniwa ni wa niwa, niwa ni wa niwa niwatori ga iru "Souka. Yappari gaijin!"