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[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

I checked with top while running Abiword in an rxvt at 640x480 15-bit 
color, without any WM.  Abiword takes up about 3.5M, everything other than 
the kernel 5256K when Abiword is not even doing anything.  If the kernel 
takes up about 2MB this leaves only 700K for Abiword to work in, even less 
with a window manager loaded, which means a lot of shuffling about.

The program loads quickly but runs really slowly in 8MB RAM.

Would a swap file actually speed things up, perhaps by letting it do all 
the swapping to contiguous space?

WP 5.1/DOS worked fine in 640K RAM, WP4.2 in 512K RAM.

Anyway, 12MB RAM should work fine and if Abiword comes out in a 
fewer-color version it will fit nicely on my 486 laptop with 12MB RAM and 
fewer colors.

I should try links2 with 8MB and 12MB.

I wish we had BL3 two years ago when someone asked us to put together a 
dozen 486s for use with linux and a wordprocessor in Eritrea.  They 
specified 16MB RAM and at least 250MB hard drive.  Could have done it in 
20MB with the right video cards.


> > Why does a wordprocessor need 16MB RAM?  Steven, have you tried it with 
> > less RAM?  I may experiment (mem=12MB when using loadlin?).  The laptop 
> > computer I was going to use with BL3 (and possibly Abiword if it can be 
> > made to work with fewer colors) has 12MB RAM.
> > Sindi
> > _______________________________________________
>
> I tried (with mem=8M after zimage in hd.bat) 8MB and 12MB RAM, Xvesa and 
> Abiword, no swap file (don't normally need one with 128MB RAM).
>
> In 12MB Abiword runs slightly slower.
> In 8MB it is not usable but does not crash.  About 15 sec for each character 
> to appear onscreen.  Lots of hard drive noises.  Would a swap file reduce the 
> amount of swapping to hard drive?
>
> Why does a wordprocessor need 12MB of RAM?  What is it doing that is so much 
> more memory intensive than a text editor?  I was just typing text.
>
> Both 800 and 640 resolution (15 bit color) had the same results.  Maybe fewer 
> colors would help.  Maybe running it without a window manager would save some 
> RAM?
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keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org