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SubjectRe: Memory Rusting Effect [re: Linux hostile to poverty]
Not really. A sort algorithm doesn't influence operating system code very
much... and the applications which make heavy use are very complicated.

On a less powerful machine, you can't get away with serious inefficiences
because things will stop dead. You have to be careful will all algorithms,
memory usage, scheduling, etc. On a Linus-class machine that is all noise,
unnoticeable really. The differnence between a 3 minute build and a 2.5
minute build... who really cares. The machine is probably idle 95% of the
time anyway.

That same Linus-class machine operating under heavy ISP load does have
limits, though. And making sure that the les powerful machine runs
efficiently will *help* ensure that the heavily loaded Linus-class machine
performs at its best.

This argument is not absolute, of course. And memory is an excellent
tradeoff for computation and I/O capacity. But would we ever have noticed
the fragmentation problem if everyone was using 512meg machines? The ISP
INN monsters would have... that is for sure.

Think of the less powerful machine as the canary in the mine that conks
out before people do.

john alvord



On Mon, 20 Jul 1998, Shawn Leas wrote:

>
> This is a highly ignored point, thanks for making it. John was making
> dangerous generalisations.
>
> I suggest that anyone needing examples go back to school, per say, and
> compare their sort algorithms.
>
> However true this may be, an algorithm can modify it's behavior if, say,
> it does not have optimal resources. Is this closer to the idea you were
> trying to portray John?
>
> -Shawn
> <=========== America Held Hostage ===========>
> Day 2007 for the poor and the middle class.
> Day 2026 for the rich and the dead.
> 915 days remaining in the Raw Deal.
> <============================================>
>
> On Mon, 20 Jul 1998, Andrea Arcangeli wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 20 Jul 1998, John Alvord wrote:
> >
> > >Keeping it running on rusty old PCs has a significant benefit, *if*
> > >the programming effort isn't too high. When a system runs fine on low end
> > >machines it will fly on high end machines. Inefficiences that are masked
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > I mainly agree but it' s not always true. For example there are algorithms
> > that run in O(n*log(n)) but use the double of memory. These algorithms
> > could be slower in a machine that will need to swapout everything to run,
> > but they will be very very faster in a machine with a lot of memory.
> >
> > Andrea[s] Arcangeli
> >
> >
> >
> > -
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> > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
> > Please read the FAQ at http://www.altern.org/andrebalsa/doc/lkml-faq.html
> >
>


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