>> Now, when your program is actively *using* several GB of RAM... that's
>> not so fun. (!!)
> 
> Photoshop did this ... I was building an image out of a stack of shots 
> with several shots at full resolution 16-bit per channel color. The 
> algorithm that determines which parts were in sharpest focus apparently 
> set out to spread itself out as much as possible in memory.
> 
> I walked away for a few minutes after starting the process, came back 
> and tried to switch to my browser, and found the system unresponsive. It 
> stayed that way for about 30 min before task manager finally appeared. 
> Again, 10GB of memory, but actively working with that 10GB. I had other 
> stuff I hadn't saved yet, and wanted a chance to save, so I waited .... 
> before I killed PS.

Pff. Accidentally write some Haskell code with the wrong strictness 
properties and watch it swallow several *hundred* GB by mistake... It's 
not even funny.

Usually very easy to kill though, if that's any consolation. (The key, 
as I said, is to set the maximum heap size to something smaller than 
physical RAM - especially if you know your program isn't supposed to 
need lots of RAM anyway...)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message