How to bring up a window really quickly?

[Ross Burton]

On Wed, 2006-03-29 at 16:29 -0700, Tamas Kerecsen wrote:
> Unfortunately when some (even low priority) application causes memory
> swapping by allocating/freeing a large block, any (even RT priority)
> application is blocked from memory allocation until the first
> allocation is sorted out. When switching applications, the X server
> (and probably the X lib too) tries to do memory allocation, and thus
> displaying the screen slows to a crawl. 
> 
> So the obvious solution (running a full screen X client that displays
> the desired screens, putting it in the background; then bringing it on
> top  when needed) is not working. Sometimes bringing the window
> forward and redrawing it takes several (tens of) seconds. 

I'd consider the obvious solution "buy more RAM".  If your system is
running out of RAM and swapping that much -- in normal and expected use
-- then you obviously need more RAM.

Ross

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Ross Burton                                 mail: ross at burtonini.com
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