Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!oliveb!amiga!cbmvax!jesup
From: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Minix, Unix on the Amiga, and flames on AmigaDOS braindamage...
Message-ID: <7661@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 15 Aug 89 00:59:59 GMT
References: <1610@uw-entropy.ms.washington.edu> <195@VAX1.CC.UAKRON.EDU> <7570@cbmvax.UUCP> <4107@sugar.hackercorp.com> <4148@cps3xx.UUCP>
Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup)
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 32

In article <4148@cps3xx.UUCP> porkka@frith.UUCP (Joe Porkka) writes:
>In article <4107@sugar.hackercorp.com> karl@sugar.hackercorp.com (Karl Lehenbauer) writes:
>>In article <7570@cbmvax.UUCP>, jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup) writes:
>>> I consider any program on ANY os that doesn't
>>> free what it allocates (memory, file locks, whatever) to be at best poorly
>>> written.
>>
>>Careful, Randall, I think you've been using your Amiga too long.  
>>
>>There is no reason a program should have to free its memory if the operating 
>>system does it.  Programs written for such an OS cannot be considered
>
>Even worse, even in UNIX, is programs that fail to check if
>they are out on memory.
>
>Most UNIX programs *do not* ever check this. UNIX programmers assume
>a blissful computer with plenty enough VM to get by.

	Plus, as I said, even in unix it can be advantageous to free things
you allocate, both from performance and ability to run in a (relatively)
tight VM system.

	I used to free everything even when programming in Ada, though it was
fairly standard just to drop things and forget them.  I was told Ada assumed
the memory would be recovered via garbage collection, or some such, but no
one had ever written a compiler/run-time-package that did it.  (my memory could
be foggy on this.)

-- 
Randell Jesup, Keeper of AmigaDos, Commodore Engineering.
{uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!jesup, jesup@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com  BIX: rjesup  
Common phrase heard at Amiga Devcon '89: "It's in there!"