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From: mykes@3comvax.UUCP (Mike Schwartz)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: fragmentation of memory
Message-ID: <437@3comvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Mar-86 13:18:37 EST
Article-I.D.: 3comvax.437
Posted: Wed Mar  5 13:18:37 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Mar-86 07:45:37 EST
References: <1429@caip.RUTGERS.EDU>
Reply-To: mykes@3comvax.UUCP (Mike Schwartz)
Organization: 3Com Corp; Mountain View, CA
Lines: 26


I am convinced that the Amiga has definate problems with dynamic memory
allocation in the operating system.  I can get reproducable Guru Meditations
several ways, althought they all seem to indicate memory allocation.

I am sure that this is a known bug (to the folks at Amiga) in the OS, but
until we get release 1.1.1 (or something) with some of the nastier bugs
fixed, we will have to live with what we got.  It seems as though the
OS throws its hands up in the air and you get a Task held error whenever
the OS can't allocate a chunk of RAM big enough for its needs.  This is
flat out unacceptable for a multi-tasking computer.  A well behaved OS
without a MMU should put up a requestor and RETRY to allocate the memory
until it succeeds or until the user clicks the abort button - no need for
GURU MEDITATION.  

I constantly find myself frustrated because 512K is not enough memory.  If
the Amiga had more Ram, I believe that most of the Fragmentation problems
would go away.  It is also possible to have over 400K "free" memory and
not be able to load small (code size) programs which declare large arrays.

I believe that Intuition and the OS are sound enough to develop for, however,
but the multi-tasking abilities of the Amiga OS are crippled without good
memory management.  

Anybody at Commodore-Amiga want to give us an idea when we can expect a new
OS release with more bugs fixed?