[comp.sys.atari.st] Suggestion for compatible fix to Malloc

preston@felix.UUCP (Preston Bannister) (08/16/88)

There is more than one way to go about this.

If some (arguably stupid) existing programs expect successive Malloc's
to return contiguous blocks, then you _could_ allow those programs to
continue working by:

- Allocate your (GEMDOS's) bookkeeping data structures (call it
  overhead) seperately from the areas allocated to the program.

And either (or both):

- Allocate overhead in chunks (i.e. 10 or 20 at a time) with the first
  chunk allocated _before_ the program begins execution (either in the
  OS space or just before the basepage.

- Allocate overhead starting from the _high_ (opposite) end of
  available memory.

If you allocate your overhead in chunks, then if the existing programs
do a small number of Malloc's, then all the overhead will fit in the
first chunk.

I suspect that would cover most (all?) of the misbehaving programs.

Any comments? :-)

--
Preston L. Bannister
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--
Preston L. Bannister
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