[Kst] Re: low memory

[George Staikos]

On Monday 26 July 2004 22:30, C. Barth Netterfield wrote:
> Here is how I have come to think about the situation:
>
> There is some small hope (P~20%?) that in the next 3-5 years
> QT+KDElibs+Linux could get to the point that it will become low-memory
> safe.  If this happens, there will be an enormous amount of work (and a
> prescribed procedure) to make the apps low-memory safe as well.  If kst is
> low memory safe, but kwm isn't, one has gained nothing.
>
> If so, putting in the *appropriate* checks could eventually prove to be
> useful.  But I do not have a crystal ball to determine what the KDE/QT
> correct way of handling said failed allocs is going to be.  It may be that
> exceptions will be the 'way to go'. or some new QT_oom_catcher, or ....  My
> guess is that putting in these checks on small allocs now is mainly useless
> even long term.

   I can answer to that one - it won't happen, basically ever.  Qt4 won't have 
it, and Qt 4 will last the next 3 years or so, and based on what Trolltech 
engineers told me, they won't attempt this for any other future release.  
Note that they don't even do this on PDAs or phones, where memory constraints 
are realistic.  Even if Qt had it, which it won't, KDE won't.

   This debate has come up in the past with KDE, and I'm surprised we don't 
have a FAQ entry on it yet.  We do have one on "if (ptr) delete ptr;":
http://developer.kde.org/documentation/other/developer-faq.html#q2.25


-- 
George Staikos
KDE Developer				http://www.kde.org/
Staikos Computing Services Inc.		http://www.staikos.net/