On Oct 7, 2009, at 7:57 AM, Harold Hallikainen wrote:

> I allocate them during initialization at run time and never discard  
> them.

Yes, malloc() type allocation is much easier to implement if you don't  
have to implement free() as well.  For that matter, special purpose  
memory allocation (malloc_filebfr(), free_filebfr(), etc) can be a lot  
easier to implement than a full general purpose malloc/free.

My experience is that implementations of dynamic memory  
implementations tend to grow (more overhead, slower execution) over  
time as additional capabilities are added (ie for debugging, tracing,  
etc)  Eventually someone has to go and implement malloc_lite() or  
chunk_malloc() that is "fast and simple."  And then IT starts to grow  
too...  Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad in a "deeply" embedded system.

BillW

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