currency based virtual memory

[Sunnanvind Fenderson]

Hi, I occasionally read the web archives of this list, although I'm
not subscribed.

Recently I came across a discussion of using a market-like or
currency-based system for virtual memory. I'm specifically replying to
what Niels wrote at
http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/l4-hurd/2002-October/000709.html .

Niels, I think you're overextending the metaphor somewhat. The
"currency system" could simply be a system of users allocating *what's
available at the moment*, meaning no saving, no speculation and no
interest. If it's 6:30 in the morning and few are logged in, you get a
lot to distribute among your progams. But what you don't use - you
lose. This is fitting since it's about distribution of time and
resources - which are not always constant.

As for Johannes' concerns in a reply to that message, the human mind
will be available if users can allocate the "currency" among programs
as they wish. They'll seldomly have to do this as this could be
automated by programs (by using good default values, for example). For
example, I seldomly set/change the nice values of processes on my
GNU/Linux today (unless I'm writing a CD). I've heard users of the old
Mac OS were able to change some variable of "how much memory
applications were allowed to use" or something similar, but I don't
have much knowledge about how that worked in practice.

Thanks,
Sunnan