[Tfug] Re-nice

[Bexley Hall]

Hi,

Inevitably, any multitasking OS runs out of resources
at some point (at least if the process list is not static).
Time or space.  The latter is probably a "harder" limit
but the former is usually more *visible*.

Speaking just about timing...

How do you address the issue of not having enough
"real time" for your application (I hesitate to use
that term as it has special connotations -- especially
if it was hyphenated)?

[let's pretend you're in a single user environment for
the time being; with or without root privileges if you
want to think in UN*X terms]

For example, if you are running N processes and one of them
isn't running as quickly as you would like (I am deliberately
avoiding the obvious examples of multimedia applications!),
how do you adjust the workload so that this application
is getting more/enough of the processor to meet *your*
(arbitrary) requirements?

For the most part, my approach is just to KILL off those
processes that I think don't need to be running at the
current time.  I can always restart them at a later
time when the "prefered application" has accomplished whatever
I need it to accomplish.

A less harsh approach is to renice the "other" processes
to effectively reduce their demands on the system (kill -9
is so much easier!  :> ).

Still another approach is to address the "prefered application"
itself and *elevate* it's priority so that it takes what it
needs from the system.

<frown>  Is my question too subtle?  I.e., is it easier for
people to think of discarding things that they don't
immediately need/want vs. highlighting *the* thing that they
are most interested in?

The latter approach seems to be easier to implement in an
intuitive fashion (i.e., "notice" what you are interested
in and let the system adjust priorities in favor of that
"application" at the expense of all others).

--don