[K12OSN] Client Ram

[Jim McQuillan]

Rob Owens wrote:
> On Sat, May 26, 2007 at 03:36:15PM -0400, Jim McQuillan wrote:
>>
>> Rob Owens wrote:
>>> Couldn't Firefox and/or the Xserver be rewritten to behave like this:
>>>
>>> 1) use only a certain amount of memory for cache
>>> 2) when that memory is full, delete the oldest cache
>>> 3) when a request comes in for a cached image, deliver it if it's
>>> available, but...
>>> 4) if the requested image has been deleted from cache, then re-request the
>>> image from its original source (the internet)
>> The Xserver doesn't know anything about the internet.  It received the 
>> image from the client application (firefox).  If the Xserver deletes the 
>> image, due to memory being full, it would need to tell firefox to resend 
>> it.  Unfortunately, there's no mechanism for that in the X11 protocol.
>>
>> Sure it could be added, but you'd have to consider whether that breaks 
>> anything in the protocol.  Keeping in mind that there's an awful lot of 
>> programs out there that depend on the current protocol.
> 
> Then couldn't Firefox have the logic built into it to re-retrieve the
> image if a problem occurs?  Or are you saying that Firefox would have no
> way of knowing that there is a problem?

Certainly firefox could go get the image again, or cache it for itself. 
  the problem is, it has no way of knowing the Xserver has thrown it away.

Jim.