On Jun 9, 1:33 pm, vishnu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi, > Thanks Cameron for your suggestions. > In fact I am using custom memory sub-allocator where I preallocate a > pool of memory during initialization of my application and ensure that > Python doesn't make any system mallocs later . With this arrangement, > python seems to run out of preallocated memory (of 10MB) after running > few simple scripts due to huge external fragmentation. My memory > sub-allocator got a good design which uses the best-fit algorithm and > coaelescing the adjacent blocks during each free call. > If anybody out there used their own memory manager and ran Python > without fragmentation , could provide some inputs on this. > >From what I remember, the best-fit algorithm isn't a good idea because unless the free block was exactly the right size you'd tend to get left with lots of small fragments. (Suppose that the best fit was a free block only 4 bytes bigger than what you want; what can you do with a free block of 4 bytes?)
A worst-fit algorithm would leave larger free blocks which are more useful subsequently, but I think that the recommendation was next-fit (ie use the first free block that's big enough, starting from where you found the last one). -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
