Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!yetti!geac!daveb From: daveb@geac.UUCP (Brown) Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.unix.wizards,comp.os.misc Subject: Re: Big Programs Hurt Performance Message-ID: <1424@geac.UUCP> Date: Wed, 31-Dec-69 18:59:59 EDT Article-I.D.: geac.1424 Posted: Wed Dec 31 18:59:59 1969 Date-Received: Sun, 20-Sep-87 18:36:14 EDT References: <1665@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM) <8579@utzoo.UUCP) <6886@eddie.MIT.EDU) <2473@xanth.UUCP) <6920@eddie.MIT.EDU> <417@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> Reply-To: daveb@geac.UUCP (Dave Collier-Brown) Organization: The little blue rock next to that twinkly star. Lines: 30 Keywords: cost of bloated programs Xref: mnetor comp.arch:2262 comp.unix.wizards:4358 comp.os.misc:200 In article <417@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> des@jplpro.JPL.NASA.GOV (David Smyth) writes: | Those extra features of big programs (like especially window managers and | I suppose any other system libraries) should be shared and therefore be | LOW COST. | * Why should all the tools be huge, when they are really using | the same code? | | There still needs to be protection, so re-useable features don't have | to be re-entrant (separate data spaces). | | These re-useable "objects" seem to need to be "light weight processes" | (basing this on the fact that the Xerox Viewpoint/XDE/Star systems | are FAR more responsive than the Sun, even though the Sun 3 has about | twice the processing power than the Xerox CPU). | | Perhaps these things need HW, perhaps SW, more likely OS support. This problem was one dealt with in the design of Mutlicks... although they didn't have lightweight processes, they did make common code reside in public-library-like segments. This required OS support, and for reasonable performance used hardware hooks to allow the linkages to be created/broken cheaply. Not a bad idea, especially coming from something as old a Eunich's pappy. --dave -- David Collier-Brown. {mnetor|yetti|utgpu}!geac!daveb Geac Computers International Inc., | Computer Science loses its 350 Steelcase Road,Markham, Ontario, | memory (if not its mind) CANADA, L3R 1B3 (416) 475-0525 x3279 | every 6 months.