Third party software memory leaks
Wednesday, April 23, 2003 at 1:28 am
Posted by 876
(1 messages posted)
I have had this problem rarely - Windows complains of being dangerously low on memory,
and it removes all fonts other than 'Fixedsys' from memory. As a last resort, some
GUI elements will not be displayed (buttons etc.) While Windows' treatment of this
problem is possibly debatable (and over time its own components will exacerbate the
problem's likelihood), I've usually been able to trace it back to a program which
allotts itself large amounts of memory, neglecting to free that memory later. Having
reset my computer and discontinued use of that particular problematic program, the
problem disappears.
Certainly, it is frustrating to receive "out of memory" errors from Windows. However
it's better than the computer simply freezing; the user has enough warning to save
and close their work while there is enough memory available for applications to be
displayed. Despite its many flaws, I find it a little harsh to blame Windows for
not allocating memory that's still allocated to other programs, as this would cause
more bizarre errors than you could poke many blunt sticks at.
Funfact: Java programs have a memory management system that automatically frees unused
memory, so they will never have memory leaks. Ever. Is that not cool? :)
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