Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mstan!chuck
From: chuck@Morgan.COM (Chuck Ocheret)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Impact of Running Several Large X Programs
Message-ID: <3214@s5.Morgan.COM>
Date: 6 May 91 17:01:42 GMT
References: <1991Apr30.024458.1020@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov> <9104301628.AA26402@dwight.tcs.com>
Organization: Morgan Stanley, & Co., Inc. / New York City, NY
Lines: 33

> I ran into this question a while back, and what I did was write my
> application so that it was confined to a single structure that included
> a display connection[*] and an applicationShell, and no global
> variables (except the XtAppContext).  This way, "launching another
> copy" became something I did within the same process.  I saved *tons*
> of memory, and gazillions of context switches :-)

This approach is valuable in a number of situations.  It vastly reduces
startup time of all but the first window.  Another advantage is that if
interfaces are written with this potential use in mind, the UI code is
generally more modular.  There are fewer global variables since all of
the information for each connection must be maintained in state
structures.  You can easily drop completely different applications into
the same program to save on resources.

> I was using Motif1.1, and even with shared libraries (on a Sun),
> the memory constraint was most alarming ...
>
> /jordan

Actually the biggest constraint when using Motif1.1 is that if you
close one of your display connections, you will not be able to open up
any more.  This is due to a Motif gc caching bug which I experienced
and /jordan found and reported.  I don't expect this to be fixed
anytime soon based on the last report from OSF.  This makes this entire
technique completely unusable in most environments.

~chuck
-- 
+--------------------+             Chuck Ocheret             +---------------+
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