4 ms·

I use a lot of different DEs because I'm a tinkerer, and I've never encountered a single memory bug in any DE I've ever used.

by cle 5y ago

vips7L 5y ago
Gnome used to have a giant memory leak in its JS implementation [0]. It’s actually what caused me to go back to windows. [0] https://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNOME-Shell-Memory-Leak-Fix https://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNOME-Shell-...
southerntofu 5y ago
Memory leaks are not uncommon on GNOME, and i assume on other desktops as well. But Rust is not just good for preventing memory bugs: strong typing prevents lots of logic bugs as well. Also, rust's "fearless refactoring" paradigm enables for incremental optimization which i've found much harder to deal with in other programming languages. I think that's a point worth considering for a big piece of engineering like a desktop environment. EDIT: Also memory bugs are not just "memory leaks". There's plenty of subtle bugs introduced by off-by-one errors and undefined behavior. Just because memory usage doesn't rise unexpectedly doesn't mean software is working as intending. I don't know about you but i personally have had weird bugs with all desktops i've tried so far.
- fredros 5y ago
  > But Rust is not just good for preventing memory bugs: strong typing prevents lots of logic bugs as well. Arc<> does exist though, and is used quite extensively in the rust ecosystem.
  - southerntofu 5y ago
    I personally never had problems with Arc<RwLock<T>>. The docs appear really clear about in what situations precisely it can be unsafe (if T is not Send+Sync): https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/sync/struct.Arc.html https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/sync/struct.Arc.html Am i missing something? Disclaimer: i'm not a good programmer, nor a low-level programmer; i use Rust as a faster/safer python-like high-level scripting language
- cle 5y ago
  We all have heard the elevator pitch for Rust by now, since all it takes is for a submission to say "written in Rust" for it to appear on the front page of HN.
  - Aeolun 5y ago
    Do not worry. You will be assimilated.
southerntofu 5y ago
Two examples searching for "memory leak" on DE bug trackers: MATE: https://github.com/search?q=org%3Amate-desktop+%22memory+leak%22&type=issues https://github.com/search?q=org%3Amate-desktop+%22memory+lea... (265 results) KDE: https://bugs.kde.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=%22memory%20leak%22 https://bugs.kde.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=%22memory%20lea... (97 results) That's just for the ones we found. I would be curious to run a full DE through valgrind :) EDIT: Anecdotal datapoint ahead: i just had to kill atril (MATE PDF viewer) on a machine where it was eating 6GB RAM after running for a few days.

I use a lot of different DEs because I'm a tinkerer, and I've never encountered a single memory bug in any DE I've ever used.

by cle 5y ago

I use a lot of different DEs because I'm a tinkerer, and I've never encountered a single memory bug in any DE I've ever used.

vips7L 5y ago

Gnome used to have a giant memory leak in its JS implementation [0]. It’s actually what caused me to go back to windows. [0] https://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNOME-Shell-Memory-Leak-Fix https://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNOME-Shell-...

southerntofu 5y ago

Memory leaks are not uncommon on GNOME, and i assume on other desktops as well. But Rust is not just good for preventing memory bugs: strong typing prevents lots of logic bugs as well. Also, rust's "fearless refactoring" paradigm enables for incremental optimization which i've found much harder to deal with in other programming languages. I think that's a point worth considering for a big piece of engineering like a desktop environment. EDIT: Also memory bugs are not just "memory leaks". There's plenty of subtle bugs introduced by off-by-one errors and undefined behavior. Just because memory usage doesn't rise unexpectedly doesn't mean software is working as intending. I don't know about you but i personally have had weird bugs with all desktops i've tried so far.

fredros 5y ago
> But Rust is not just good for preventing memory bugs: strong typing prevents lots of logic bugs as well. Arc<> does exist though, and is used quite extensively in the rust ecosystem.
- southerntofu 5y ago
  I personally never had problems with Arc<RwLock<T>>. The docs appear really clear about in what situations precisely it can be unsafe (if T is not Send+Sync): https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/sync/struct.Arc.html https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/sync/struct.Arc.html Am i missing something? Disclaimer: i'm not a good programmer, nor a low-level programmer; i use Rust as a faster/safer python-like high-level scripting language
cle 5y ago
We all have heard the elevator pitch for Rust by now, since all it takes is for a submission to say "written in Rust" for it to appear on the front page of HN.
- Aeolun 5y ago
  Do not worry. You will be assimilated.

southerntofu 5y ago

Two examples searching for "memory leak" on DE bug trackers: MATE: https://github.com/search?q=org%3Amate-desktop+%22memory+leak%22&type=issues https://github.com/search?q=org%3Amate-desktop+%22memory+lea... (265 results) KDE: https://bugs.kde.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=%22memory%20leak%22 https://bugs.kde.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=%22memory%20lea... (97 results) That's just for the ones we found. I would be curious to run a full DE through valgrind :) EDIT: Anecdotal datapoint ahead: i just had to kill atril (MATE PDF viewer) on a machine where it was eating 6GB RAM after running for a few days.