why does idea have a "run gc"-button?

i mean, what is that button good for? sure, i can press it while waiting for make to finish, but...it doesn't really do anything.

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H> i mean, what is that button good for? sure, i can press it while
H> waiting for make to finish, but...it doesn't really do anything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_button

:)


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Well, it's not exactly a placebo button, as it does do what it advertises. I run it if i know I'm about to do a real memory hogging process.

I also press it when I'm bored

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I use it on occasion if I had a whole bunch of tools open and then close them. I will also use it to see if IntelliJ is leaking memory to see if I need to restart it. Usually the memory can be reclaimed (IntelliJ doesn't leak memory as some people would lead you to believe).

Why do you think it doesn't do anything?

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because the gc will run anyway as soon as it need to. it's like writing "at first, i took a pencil" into your diary.

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Hello HamsterofDeath,

That doens't mean it doesn't DO anything, just that you should not need to
press it. ;)

I find it useful when I suspect memory leaks (when I have lots of plugins
installed, for instance). Pressing it several times and not seeing IDEA drop
the memory usage to a reasonable value usually tells me I'm in that state.

It's a quick way of "ensuring" IDEA won't crash with out of memory errors
when I perform a potentially big refactoring (not a foolproof one, mind you,
just a good enough one).

Best,
Andrei

H> because the gc will run anyway as soon as it need to. it's like
H> writing "at first, i took a pencil" into your diary.
H>
H> ---
H> Original message URL:
H> http://www.jetbrains.net/devnet/message/5245871#5245871


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