Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ut-sally!utah-cs!utah-gr!stride!l5comp!scotty From: scotty@l5comp.UUCP (Scott Turner) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Re: True Multitasking, and some history lessons Message-ID: <286@l5comp.UUCP> Date: Sat, 6-Jun-87 10:40:31 EDT Article-I.D.: l5comp.286 Posted: Sat Jun 6 10:40:31 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 12-Jun-87 01:26:25 EDT References: <8706040024.AA10895@cogsci.berkeley.edu> <2194@husc6.UUCP> Reply-To: scotty@l5comp.UUCP (Scott Turner) Organization: L5 Computing, Edmonds, WA Lines: 43 Summary: Un*x vs Amiga's OS, who's the memory hog? In article <2194@husc6.UUCP> hadeishi@husc4.UUCP (mitsuharu hadeishi) writes: >executables anyway. But the real memory hog is the UNIX machines, not >the Amiga, since the Amiga has shared libraries which make executables >that access shared system resources and functions (windowing interface, >etc.) much smaller than their UNIX counterparts, which have to link >in a HUGE run-time library to EACH executable that uses them. Thus [...] >But even with only windowing and DOS functions in shared libraries the >Amiga executables tend to be far smaller than their Sun (for example) >counterparts. So even ignoring the "resident" command (which only >works with specially prepared executables) the Amiga tends to have >better memory usage than similar UNIX-based windowing systems. > > -Mitsu First, un*x does NOT have this huge run-time library forced upon each and every program. The library is VERY comparable to the libraries that get linked into Amiga programs. Where the Amiga has shared libraries to draw upon, un*x has it's kernel. The un*x kernel provides quite a few of the functions provided by the shared libraries on the Amiga. After all, most of the "stock" shared libraries on the Amiga are pretty much the same in concept as the un*x kernel. Second, shared code IS possible under un*x. But it's machine dependent and most un*x code is written to be portable. If I wished to code up shared libraries on my un*x box I could certainly do so. It's true that quite a few un*x programs are HUGE. GNU Emacs for example is 558080 bytes on my UniStride 2.1 computer (l5comp). I have no doubt that it would be smaller on the Amiga. But then several features would be missing from the Amiga version since the Amiga couldn't support them. (Like the stuff for talking to the mail system) Zoo is 49350 bytes on my un*x system. As I remember this is pretty competitve with the Amiga Zoo in size. Third, the reason the Amiga tends to have better memory usage is really quite simple. Un*x systems tend to have TONS of memory lying around. This affects how you code. If ram is available and using it will simplify something then why not use it rather than spend days coding around the lack of ram? Scott Turner -- UUCP-stick: stride!l5comp!scotty | If you want to injure my goldfish just make UUCP-auto: scotty@l5comp.UUCP | sure I don't run up a vet bill. GEnie: JST | "The bombs drop in 5 minutes" R. Reagan Disclaimer? I own L5 Computing. Isn't that enough?