Re: Memory and error management approaches

From	Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Re: Memory and error management approaches
Date	2015-11-03 09:34 +1300
Message-ID	<d9pvmaF7v31U1@mid.individual.net> (permalink)
References	<n179ne$64b$1@speranza.aioe.org> <d9ooh3F6ovuU4@mid.individual.net> <f49c768f-cfbd-4884-9b7b-5b51cf47c439@googlegroups.com>

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Malcolm McLean wrote:
> On Monday, November 2, 2015 at 9:26:06 AM UTC, Ian Collins wrote:
>> Morten W. Petersen wrote:
>>
>>> Any thoughts on this?  A while ago someone wrote on comp.lang.c about
>>> writing a custom memory manager for performance; is that something that
>>> could be coupled with all of this?
>>
>> Most of the platforms I'm familiar with provide specialised memory
>> allocator libraries, you shouldn't have to roll yet another one for
>> something as simple as XML parsing.
>>
> In an ideal world, that would be good advice. In the reality, it's bad advice.

In this case, it is good advice.  How many straight forward (I'd include 
XML parsing here) applications require a custom allocator?  Virtually none.

> An XML parser is just a medium-complexity component. But it's likely to handle
> huge amounts of memory, certainly it's likely that the programmer cannot control
> the size of data file he will be passed, at compile time. It's also likely to want to
> split that memory up into a huge number of tiny sections.
> So the case for some sort of custom scheme, rather than malloc() . free(), is strong.

I've been using and growing the same core XML DOM parser for 15 years or 
so and to date I haven't seen the need to mess with memory allocation. 
I've profiled it with typical files (in my case, SOAP) and with large 
Open Office documents (possibly the best stress and completeness tests 
for an XML parser).  memory allocation has never seen enough of an issue 
for me to change it.

-- 
Ian Collins

Thread

Memory and error management approaches "Morten W. Petersen" <morphex@gmail.com> - 2015-11-02 10:17 +0100
  Re: Memory and error management approaches Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-11-02 22:25 +1300
    Re: Memory and error management approaches "Morten W. Petersen" <morphex@gmail.com> - 2015-11-02 10:36 +0100
      Re: Memory and error management approaches Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-11-02 22:41 +1300
        Re: Memory and error management approaches "Morten W. Petersen" <morphex@gmail.com> - 2015-11-02 11:05 +0100
          Re: Memory and error management approaches Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2015-11-02 12:15 +0000
            Re: Memory and error management approaches "Morten W. Petersen" <morphex@gmail.com> - 2015-11-02 20:31 +0100
          Re: Memory and error management approaches Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-11-03 09:48 +1300
            Re: Memory and error management approaches supercat@casperkitty.com - 2015-11-02 13:17 -0800
              Re: Memory and error management approaches Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-11-03 10:29 +1300
                Re: Memory and error management approaches supercat@casperkitty.com - 2015-11-02 13:48 -0800
            Re: Memory and error management approaches "Morten W. Petersen" <morphex@gmail.com> - 2015-11-02 22:31 +0100
              Re: Memory and error management approaches Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-11-03 11:02 +1300
                Re: Memory and error management approaches supercat@casperkitty.com - 2015-11-02 15:21 -0800
              Re: Memory and error management approaches <william@wilbur.25thandClement.com> - 2015-11-03 17:24 -0800
                Re: Memory and error management approaches Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-11-04 14:38 +1300
                Re: Memory and error management approaches <william@wilbur.25thandClement.com> - 2015-11-04 10:48 -0800
                Re: Memory and error management approaches supercat@casperkitty.com - 2015-11-04 11:28 -0800
                Re: Memory and error management approaches James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-11-04 14:54 -0500
                Re: Memory and error management approaches Gareth Owen <gwowen@gmail.com> - 2015-11-06 07:50 +0000
                Re: Memory and error management approaches <william@wilbur.25thandClement.com> - 2015-11-06 11:40 -0800
                Re: Memory and error management approaches Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-11-07 09:38 +1300
                Re: Memory and error management approaches Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2015-11-06 20:55 +0000
                Re: Memory and error management approaches Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-11-07 02:23 -0800
                Re: Memory and error management approaches Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2015-11-07 11:29 +0000
                Re: Memory and error management approaches Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-11-07 04:18 -0800
                Re: Memory and error management approaches asetofsymbols@gmail.com - 2015-11-07 05:41 -0800
                Re: Memory and error management approaches asetofsymbols@gmail.com - 2015-11-07 06:27 -0800
                Re: Memory and error management approaches Sjouke Burry <burrynulnulfour@ppllaanneett.nnll> - 2015-11-07 18:20 +0100
                Re: Memory and error management approaches Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-11-07 10:28 -0800
                Re: Memory and error management approaches gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2015-11-07 19:01 +0000
                Re: Memory and error management approaches raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2015-11-10 16:14 +0000
                Re: Memory and error management approaches Gareth Owen <gwowen@gmail.com> - 2015-11-10 21:13 +0000
                Re: Memory and error management approaches Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2015-11-10 19:26 +0000
                Re: Memory and error management approaches Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-11-03 18:25 -0800
                Re: Memory and error management approaches "Morten W. Petersen" <morphex@gmail.com> - 2015-11-06 10:05 +0100
    Re: Memory and error management approaches Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-11-02 02:15 -0800
      Re: Memory and error management approaches Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2015-11-02 12:01 +0000
        Re: Memory and error management approaches Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-11-02 06:05 -0800
          Re: Memory and error management approaches Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2015-11-02 17:18 +0000
            Re: Memory and error management approaches Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-11-02 09:27 -0800
              Re: Memory and error management approaches Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2015-11-02 23:02 +0000
              Re: Memory and error management approaches Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-11-03 12:07 +1300
                Re: Memory and error management approaches Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-11-02 15:23 -0800
            Re: Memory and error management approaches supercat@casperkitty.com - 2015-11-02 10:28 -0800
      Re: Memory and error management approaches Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-11-03 09:34 +1300
        Re: Memory and error management approaches Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-11-02 14:05 -0800
          Re: Memory and error management approaches Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-11-03 11:27 +1300
            Re: Memory and error management approaches Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-11-03 18:15 -0800

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