🚀 go-pugleaf

I know virtually nothing on programming the NeXT (but I've ordered the Garfinkel / Mahoney
book) and want to know *why* the swapfile doesn't decrease or why some sort of a utility
can't be written that *makes* it decrease.

My understanding is that when appications run out of real ram to play with, they use
virtual ram, aka the swapfile.  In theory, applications should clean up the mess they make
with VM, but as my perpetually growing swapfile shows, this is rarely the case.  

So, in theory, why can't a application be made that pokes through the swapfile, and RAM in
general, looking for things that don't seem to have an owner, and deletes them.

I'm speaking naively here, but would appreciate an answer from someone who knows,
Thanks!

Scott


-- 
EMAIL: S.A.McIntyre@durham.ac.uk   OR   scott@shrug.dur.ac.uk (NeXTmail)
SNAIL: Pyschment of Departology, University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3LE
SUN Computers:  "Nice chips, shame about her OS"
"If a virtual tree falls in a virtual forest, does it make a virtual sound?"