Mail Archives: djgpp/1999/12/07/13:16:39
Eli Zaretskii (eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il) wrote:
> On Fri, 3 Dec 1999, Leon wrote:
> > > The real reason that emacs is so slow on startup is its absolute
> > > size. It simply won't fit into 4MB RAM, without much squeezing, and as
> > > soon as you start compilations from inside Emacs, it'll die.
> >
> > thanks! that is a very good info becuase it will allow me to make sort of
> > educated decision - what RAM size would you consider to be OK for running
> > EMCAS (while also running compilers of course ;-)
> I don't agree with Hans-Bernhard's opinion: Emacs *will* work in 4MB,
> with noi visible problems. And it won't die when you compile from
> within it, it will just be paged out to disk by the DPMI server.
Eli is closer to emacs than I am, so I assume he's right, and my
statement above is wrongly remembered information from the times I
last used Emacs on a 4 MB machine (1993 or so). I do remember having
needed quite some trickery to get DJGPP with or without emacs work as
swiftly as possible on an 8 Megs machine (stuff like a 6 MB write-back
smartdrv for larger multi-file compiles), which may have cause
incorrect conclusions.
As to the term 'die', that was an exaggeration. I meant it as stating
that there may well be so much paging in and out that it'll feel like
it's dying out. It can become slow enough to make it a pain, that way.
The easiest bet, these days, might actually be to upgrade the
hardware, as someone else suggested. 4MB SIMMs are the type of stuff
people are converting into keyrings, doorstops or other memorabilia,
these days, as they're considered essentially useless. You may be get
some thrown at your back because you didn't properly close a door as
you left a shop, these days... ;-)
--
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.
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