This is a bit simplified:

The transparency effects are part of Aqua. In OS 9, windows are opaque, so
anything behind a window is not visible, and the windowing system does not
need to keep track of it. In OS X, windows may be translucent, such as when
menu items are pulled down. The windowing system therefore has to keep all
the information as to what is behind the front-most window to properly blend
the windows for the transparency effects. The net result is that OS X will
use more memory for window management than MacOS 9. If you have a large
number of applications open simultaneously or large numbers of windows
present, this could be a significant memory usage, enough to cause swapping
in OS X. Swapping will dramatically slow application performance.

On balance, I think the additional capabilities of Aqua are worth the
relatively minor cost of an extra 256K or 512K of memory.


-- 
Eric Hildum

> From: SVEN AERTS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Reply-To: "Entourage:mac Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: Fri, 09 Aug 2002 10:11:27 +0200
> To: EntX-Talk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: EntX is slow
> 
> On 05-08-2002 17:40, "Eric Hildum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
>> In general, for any computer, be it Windows, Linux, or Macintosh (of either
>> flavor), IBM mainframe, etc. more RAM memory almost always helps
>> performance. Since adding memory is the cheapest and easiest method of
>> increasing performance across the board, that is why you see it recommended,
>> even for systems not used by graphic-designers.
>> 
>> OS X uses significantly more memory than early Mac OS versions due to the
>> new transparency effects in the windowing system.
> 
> What are transparency effects ? Is it the graphic interface of OSX ...  That
> Aqua thing ?


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