Re: [Pan-users] pan for Windows crashes when reading large newsgroup

[Steve Davies]

On 23 October 2012 18:56, Zan Lynx <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Fri, 2012-10-19 at 14:24 +0100, Steve Davies wrote:
>> As a result, Pan is limited to the memory addressable by a 32-bit
>> application, which is 2Gb under windows. (32 bits allows 4Gb to be
>> addressed, but 32 bit apps only get 2Gb for a number of reasons which
>> I would not explain well)
>
> If you build your app with the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag then it can use
> all 4GB of virtual space. Of course there are some possible bugs you can
> run into and if you're using third-party libraries you may not be able
> to fix them.
>
> Check here for some details:
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5185406/how-does-the-large-address-aware-flag-work-for-32-bit-applications-on-64-bit-com
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/ja-jp/isv/bb190527%28l=en-us%29
>

>From a cursory read of those pages:

1) It assumes a Microsoft development environment against MS .dll files
2) It assumes you are writing the code-base with MS in mind.

Neither of these are true. Pan is a Linux product being compiled with
GCC and linked to libraries with GCCs linker. Many of the libraries
(.dll and static) are pre-compiled, and will have no clue about
Microsoft's LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag.

I _could_ replicate my build environment in 64-bit, (which would mean
buying a Windows 7 64-bit licence to run in my VM unless I plan to
break the law) and build a 64-bit version of Pan so that it could run
off with even more RAM, and perhaps allow the O.P. to load very very
very large groups. It would also mean building 32 and 64 bit for every
update, and perhaps packaging the installer twice.

Alternatively I could spend no time or money, and wait until Pan does
not need over 2Gb RAM to run for a small percentage of users... Guess
which option I prefer :)

Surely the very few people who need to use Pan with big RAM can
install Linux 64-bit in a VM and build/install/run 64-bit Pan there?

Just my 2p.
Steve