-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 David C. Rankin wrote:

Listmates,

A couple of questions. In c, I am working on a small program to read deposition transcripts (text files) into a linked list and then step through the list to classify the lines, search, etc. What I would like to know is how do I tell how much memory the program uses? The list structure is basically:

struct record { char *line; int lineno; int linetype; int pageno, lineno, recordno; struct record *next; };

The file is read with lines length determined by "length = getline (&lineptr, &n, depo)" with the char *line allocated as length+1 with malloc. Is there a way to determine how much memory I'm using besides doing some kind of sum on each node in the list where memory for each node would be something like ( length*char + int + int + int + int + int + pointer )? Or, could I just take something like the text file size on disk + number of structures * ( int + int + int + int + int + pointer )?

Also, more generally, for searching and working on the text, would just all reading the text into something other than a linked list be better? I guess I could use one big buffer. The text files for each single transcript are rarely ever more than 500K. Eventually, I would like to have the ability to search through any number of transcripts, but they need not all be in memory at the same time (although for speed that would help). Any text handling favorite data structures?

Next, and more importantly... who has a good link to a gdb tutorial? (I have found a few, but I would love to have a good one recommended). Thanks.

Sorry formatting lost in above as message for some reason did not wrap properly in Thunderbird... Hmmm... If you are trying to familiarise yourself with c, strings and lists then fine. I personally find associative arrays/hashes are very useful for this kind of activity but c does not natively support this type of data structure. C++ with STL does include much of this functionality (in the collection templates), though as a keyword is small I am not certain that this is appropriate and basic usage is somewhat like pulling ones own teeth without pain relief. To be honest what you describing is moving perilously close to a relational database function, and it is not clear to me whether you want the overall memory usage of the program process (I thought there were some system calls for that) or the memory usage of the program data. However, Perl or Python are better for this kind of activity if performance is not a key issue, and do not forget Java. They also take care of memory management headaches, C/C++ memory management along with C pointers should really be in the 'Here be monsters, beware!' section of any C reference text or manual :-) . Also there is a fair bit of corpora/concordance software (much in the public domain) already out there which seems to cover what you seem to be aiming to do. (Why re-invent the wheel, except for the fun :-) ). There used to be something the Law School of the institution I used to work for I was told was used for this purpose (Micro-Concord I think)... As for gdb, probably useful to know, but I would use an IDE such as Eclipse for debugging and development. Most IDEs include goodies like syntax checking, code profiling, header reference checking , code templates and the like. I good IDE in some ways can be a good tutorial tool if you trying to get to grips with an unfamiliar language. I have not used the C/C++ support in Eclipse for a long time so cannot comment on what it is like now (it was quite nice)... but the Java and Perl stuff is useful. BTW It is useful to ensure a productive software project by choosing the appropriate tools, choosing the right type of language is a useful start.... e.g. Shell scripts are good for stringing sequences of system commands where processing of output is fairly simple and flow decisions are also relatively simple. However are not so good for situations where either the output processing or flow control is complex. (You can do more complex stuff, but being able to do something and whether you should do something are two different questions). Interpretative script languages such as Perl or Python are more useful for more complex projects, and offer some benefits that purely compiled languages do not offer. For a static code base there is usually a comparative performance hit, but they can perform operations which are not easily done within a compiled language. They are also useful for fast proto-typing for later use in a compiled language version (Perl is possibly somewhat better than Python in this aspect as there is a somewhat closer match between C style Perl syntax to C/C++ syntax, though I am sure some Python supporters will question this assertion). Compiled languages will usually give the best performing and more efficient implementation of a particular program design (if you are using an appropriate language of course, fluid mechanics in Cobol anyone :-) ). (BTW Java is neither fish nor fowl on the last two comments and depending on ones view point, either combines the worst or best of the strengths and weaknesses of interpreted script languages and complied languages). - -- ============================================================================== I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone. Bjarne Stroustrup ============================================================================== -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAkqGlUcACgkQasN0sSnLmgIYdQCfb7omPIrWZe2q4mH9GG9F0XTP nX8AoO2NC47IFCL/n/KJGo6k+9I5Cado =pqiK -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org