Xref: utzoo comp.editors:1204 gnu.emacs:2061 comp.unix.wizards:19958 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uflorida!novavax!hcx1!tom From: tom@ssd.csd.harris.com (Tom Horsley) Newsgroups: comp.editors,gnu.emacs,comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: GNU Emacs, memory usage, releasing Message-ID: Date: 31 Dec 89 15:14:33 GMT References: <1558@aber-cs.UUCP> Sender: news@hcx1.UUCP Organization: Harris Computer Systems Division Lines: 27 In-reply-to: pcg@aber-cs.UUCP's message of 29 Dec 89 01:04:26 GMT >6) Having a linked list of lines is a fairly cheap technology, and inasmush >it can make the working set smaller (no need to move the gap) it will >often actually *save* memory, even if it has an overhead for the links (often >smaller however for small files than the cost of keeping a gap). I don't want to start any arguments about the merits of one buffer data structure over the other, but before anyone wastes a lot of time making a change like this under the assumption that gnuemacs is a nice modular system with good data hiding principles applied, etc. They should take a look at the regular expression pattern matching code (just to mention one example that would disintegrate). It expects the data for the buffer to be in 1 or 2 chunks. Only RMS knows how deeply intwined this data structure is in other parts of gnuemacs, but it is not something to change in one afternoon. Actually, my biggest objection to emacs is garbage collection. I would do anything (short of actually doing the work to implement it :-) to have an incremental garbage collector. There is nothing more disruptive to your train of thought than being in the middle of coding some algorithm you have finally gotten your brain to understand, then having everything stop while the Garbage collecting... message comes up. -- ===================================================================== domain: tahorsley@ssd.csd.harris.com USMail: Tom Horsley uucp: ...!novavax!hcx1!tahorsley 511 Kingbird Circle or ...!uunet!hcx1!tahorsley Delray Beach, FL 33444 ======================== Aging: Just say no! ========================