|
Cool Mac Gear• iPod Video • iPod nano • iPod 1G-2G • iPod 3G • iPod 4G • iPod Mini • PowerBook-iBook • Garageband |
This week I have been experimenting with a piece of developmental software that is designed to address memory management in OS X -- specifically excessive pageouts after the available memory gets maxed out. It's hush-hush as yet. The component I'm trying si just an AppleScript, which will eventually be wrapped into another Cocoa application with a pretty GUI interface, a Menubar readout and a Preference pane that manages other aspects of memory, too.
The developer says that:
I can't tell you its name yet, or show you any screenshots, but the developer has given permission for me to discuss it in general terms. I'm no programmer, and my understanding of these concepts is hazy at best, but the stated objective is to a balance between performance hits due to pageouts and performance hits due to unavailable memory. The current, developmental AppleScript version allows you to log memory usage data. Heres a snapshot:
The program will run quietly in background until it detects a possible problem; then it will give an audible alert ("Alert!") and present a dialog box. Pressing 'Log' logs the data to file; pressing 'Copy to Clipboard' will do the obvious pressing 'More' will give you the option to quit, continue normally, or continue logging but present no more alerts. Leaving the app running so it can monitor your continued vnode usage, as well as your swapfile count, which may double or even triple (the developer tells me that this is not a bad thing unless it gets out of hand and eats up too much drive space). The result, he says should be a very noticeable improvement in performance. The jury is still out on that, but so far it seems to be working. I'll keep you posted. More on swap files OSX migration and Beige problem From Ben Gravely Charles, A while back I wrote you about my Beige G3 (400MHz) loosing USB under 9.2.2. After posting on several boards, and following hours of upgrading all kinds of SW pieces with no success, a fellow on the Mac Gurus forum hit the nail on the head. The problem was the 9.2.2 USB device extension file. Under 9.2.2, there is no knowledge of the old non-USB hardware system. All I had to do was reinstall an older version of the USB device extension (circa 1.4.6-1.5.5), and voila!, I am up and running. You asked why I would want to run 9.2.2, since 9.1 should be fine. Actually, I am kicking tires on my way to OSX, and I read somewhere that 9.2.2 was more stable than 9.1. It does seem a little faster. I also wanted to test the compatibility of all my software with 9.2.2 to make sure my prehistoric Quickkeys and Quicken didn't break, for example. Now to the question of migrating to OSX. In my case it is all a matter of money. I have no qualms with the idea of moving over, just not enough emotional incentive to spend the thousands of dollars needed to do it, for minimal benefit. I have two machines, a Beige G3 (400MHz) at work, and a PB2000 (400MHz) at home. I use MS Office (98), CAD, Photoshop, Mozilla, Quicken, and other programs that currently work OK. I would certainly like Photoshop and CAD to run faster, but they are acceptable at the moment. I do the same stuff at home and at work (self employed). It could cost me thousands to throw out all my production software and get OSX compatible stuff, not counting a hardware change. At work I have SCSI peripherals including a $900 scanner and $2000 a Nikon film reader, etc. that must be supported. I am not about to trash these items. Usually, when I get a new system it goes to work, and the older system migrates home. This scenario is less viable with the switch to OSX and new hardware. Now I have to worry about two machines being incompatible, or at least, the home machine being a drag on my work. Cost and legacy issues are therefore my biggest stumbling blocks, and a dual boot system manditory, with SCSI support. I will ooze into OSX one app at a time, while keeping my old stuff running in the meantime. With that as background, my considerations now center around upgrading one of my current systems to be OSX usable (I think the PB2000 is the one), and looking for a backward compatible G4 sale system with SCSI as my office machine. The old Beige G3 will become the wife's, replacing her accelerated 6115CD. Then I can tackle the software upgrade questions without being forced to make a quantum leap. I have no time table for this process. I am watching the sale offerings for memory, accelerators, hard drives, new, used, or refurbed G4 systems, etc. I may wind up with a 1GB/1GHz PB2000 at home, and a similar G4 at the office. Charles, I have no idea how typical my story is, but I would expect a lot of people are just inching their way toward OSX as I am, with an eye on the cost/benefit of making such a move, and a lot of study about which thing to do next.
Regards,
Hi Ben;
I think your transition strategy makes eminent good sense. I'm a big dfan of incrementalism. As longtime readers readers of this column know, my own gradual transition took about 15 months. I rarely boot into OS 9 any more, (although I'm still gald to have it around), but I still use Classic Mode routinely fro a few apps that I haven't found satisfactory OS X native substitutes.
All the best on your Odyssey!
Charles From Bryan Dyck Hi Charles... You mentioned that you have 11 swapfiles active - I have a feeling that Classic is responsible for a lot of that. As I don't run Classic myself, I can't corroborate that, but I have read in various places that Classic can cause a lot of swap activity (as it requires its' own virtual memory space) and is generally just a large consumer of memory. Just to set the record straight, in my earlier email, I was just pulling out random numbers when referring to active swapfiles; they weren't meant as an indication of "good" or "bad" system performance. I think the only time my system has a single swapfile is right after a fresh boot. :-) If you're really curious, you can always quit Classic for a while and see what kind of swap usage you get - or even reboot and not start Classic, just for the sake of having a clean slate to work with.
Cheers,
Hi Bryan;
Classic may be part of the problem, although the Classic apps I use are small and use little memory, so I always seem to have plenty of memory margin in the Classic Mode allocation.
The real memory bruisers seem to be the dictation software apps, browsers, and the window manager.
To be clear, those 11 swapfiles were after 10 days of production uptime.
Charles
The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here: Note: Letters to Moore's Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context. Opinions expressed in postings to Moore's MailBag are those of the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or Applelinks management. If you would prefer that your message not appear in Moore's Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published. CM
Page: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 |
| ||||
|
| ||||||
