Re: IDL Memory Management

[davidf(at)dfanning.com (David Fanning)]

Craig Markwardt (craigmnet@cow.physics.wisc.edu) writes:

> Windows used to have a non-linear addressing model when physical
> system memory was scarce.  Memory was allocated in chunks which could
> be moved around by the Windows as needed, thus alleviating the above
> fragmentation problem.  I think however that more recent versions of
> Windows have accepted the linear "Unix" model of memory architecture
> that I have described.

As I understand it, the compiler used for the Windows versions
of IDL *can* return process memory back to the OS. But it is
the only one to do so. It is not a feature, apparently, of
UNIX, Mac, and VMS compilers, which rely on Malloc and Free
for dynamic memory allocation.

Cheers,

David

-- 
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
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