Andrew Grillet wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:

 AG> I had a discussion with someone in which it was suggested it
 AG> might be possible to compress stuff being swapped. Not to
 AG> save disk space, which is a minor issue, but to reduce
 AG> amount of data transfer, as it is slow. 

 AG> This might be viable IMHO - what are the problems? Assuming
 AG> it was only used on non-critical systems (No plans to do
 AG> this on my server :-) 

You could do it, and IBM has looked at the idea for OS/2.  However, the end
result of the analysis is that disk space is cheap and plentiful, while CPU
time for compression and decompression is neither.  Therefore, compressing
the swapfile is just not economical.

 MB> Every programmer should make an attempt to look at that web page.

 AG> Lots of us don't have Internet cos we can't afford the phone
 AG> bills. Local calls are VERY far from free in Europe.

You should get rid of those government telecommunications monopolies. :-)
 
-- Mike


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