| |||||||||||||
ELC2009: Visualizing memory usage with smemELC2009: Visualizing memory usage with smemPosted Apr 30, 2009 3:24 UTC (Thu) by dberkholz (subscriber, #23346)Parent article: ELC2009: Visualizing memory usage with smem
There are so many top variants out there. Why do people keep writing new ones instead of adding features to the existing ones?
(Log in to post comments)
ELC2009: Visualizing memory usage with smem Posted Apr 30, 2009 4:29 UTC (Thu) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link]
This is a standard problem with free software developers. Forks, rewrites, embedded code copies, hundreds of different editors/music players/etc. This is a social problem that will probably never go away, so now is the time to get over it and worry about something else.
ELC2009: Visualizing memory usage with smem Posted May 1, 2009 17:04 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link] This is a standard problem with free software developers. Forks, rewrites, embedded code copies, hundreds of different editors/music players/etc. This is a social problem that will probably never go away, And to put a finer point on it, it is a political problem. For many of us, it is far easier, and more satisfying, to develop and distribute an alternative to xyz than to get the people who control xyz to see things our way and cooperate to distribute our work.
ELC2009: Visualizing memory usage with smem Posted Apr 30, 2009 8:57 UTC (Thu) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link]
> There are so many top variants out there. Why do people keep writing new ones instead of adding features to the existing ones?
I would be interested to know about pre-existing top variants that give information as simple to understand as the pie chart found in the article. Could you please name (at least) one?
I would also be interested to understand why Nackall had to write some kernel patches if such simple information was already available. Any clue?
ELC2009: Visualizing memory usage with smem Posted May 1, 2009 16:53 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link] I would be interested to know about pre-existing top variants that give information as simple to understand as the pie chart found in the article. I think you missed the point. dberkholz isn't saying there is already a top variant that has all the features of smem. He's suggesting it would have been better to add the features to one of the existing ones than to create a separate program.
ELC2009: Visualizing memory usage with smem Posted Apr 30, 2009 10:24 UTC (Thu) by jldugger (subscriber, #57576) [Link]
The top manpage is already long enough, thank you.
ELC2009: Visualizing memory usage with smem Posted May 2, 2009 2:26 UTC (Sat) by GreyWizard (guest, #1026) [Link]
This is a fantastically unproductive line of reasoning. Fitting the features of smem into top might be desirable, but requiring this as a precondition of releasing the smem work at all would be insane. Nothing prevents a motivated individual from taking on the integration work afterward.
In other words, people keep writing new ones because this is the most effective way to make progress.
|
|||||||||||||