Re: What are the VM motivations??

[Daniel Phillips]

On Monday 25 June 2001 03:46, Russell Leighton wrote:
> I read this thread as asking the question:
>
>     If VM management is viewed as an optimization problem,
>     then what exactly is the function that you are optimizing and what are
> the constraints?
>
> If you could express that well with a even a very loose model, then
> the code could be reviewed to see if it was really doing what was intended
> and assumptions could be tested.

May I suggested an algorithm?

  - Write down what you think the optimization constraints are.
    (be specific, for example, enumerate all the flavors of page types -
    process code, process data, page cache file data, page cache swap
    cache, anonymous, shmem, etc.)

  - Write down what you think the current algorithms are.
    (again, be specific, use file names, function names, pseudocode and 
    snippets of existing code.)

  - Send it to Rik.  He'll tell you if it's right.

  - Because life is short and should not be boring, cc it to Andrea as well
    ;-)

This way you save everybody's time and ensure you understand what's really 
going on.  Not to mention coming up with a document worth its weight in 
dilithium crystals.

--
Daniel