Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!keith
From: keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Why do application partitions exist?
Message-ID: <48991@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 9 Feb 91 02:37:38 GMT
References: <1991Feb5.182501.4325@wam.umd.edu>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 19

In article <1991Feb5.182501.4325@wam.umd.edu> nebel@wam.umd.edu (Chris D. Nebel) writes:
>I got to wondering about this one late one night: why does Multifinder have
>this business of application partitions?  Why couldn't it have been written
>so that all applications simply share one big heap zone?  This would have

There's been a lot of talk on this, but I don't think I've seen this
reason against your suggestion yet. There are some programs out there
(for instance, FileMaker), that find out how much memory is available,
and allocate it all for themselves. They then do their own memory
management from it (either with their own routines or by treating it
as a sub-zone). If you were to run such a program on a 128Meg Mac,
it would take all that memory, and not let anyone else run.

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"Argue for your Apple, and sure enough, it's yours" - Keith Rollin, Contusions