Memory management

[socrates]

I understand there are some issues with memory clean-up.

What guidelines should be followed to ensure that memory leaking is kept to a minimum, or avoided?

Regards,
Rupert

[roger]

Hi Rupert,
To avoid memory leaks, don't create new temporary objects, arrays or strings. So never use the new keyword in a line of code that can be executed more than once. If you need to reuse an object or array, declare and create it as a class-level field.
String literals are created as new objects every time the code encounters them, such as in LCD.drawString("hello",0,0); You can fill memory quickly by calling this in a loop. So define a field
String HELLO = "hello";
Then
for(int i = 0; i<10000; i++)LCD.drawString(HELLO,0,0);
is perfectly harmless.
I hope this helps.

Roger

[DigitalOne]

Hi Roger,

I tried that code with my NXT and all I get is a blank screen for several seconds and then it flashes and shuts down. I understand the how/why of the memory management portion of your code but I can't get it to run.

Here is the code I'm using since there is a good chance my n00b Java skills could be the reason.

Code: Select all

import lejos.nxt.LCD;

public class HelloWorld {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      String s = "hello";
      for(int i = 0; i<10000; i++)LCD.drawString(s,0,0);
   }
}


Any help is appreciated help.

Thanks,

[gloomyandy]

Hi,
You need to add a LCD.refresh() whenever you want to update the screen. Basically your program was working and completing. Under LeJos the system will shut down after a program completes....

Andy

[DigitalOne]

Thanks Andy,

I new it had to be something dumb. Thanks to Roger as well, with the help of this thread I managed to write a program that reads sensor data and updates it to the LCD screen in real time. I'm going to post that code in the Projects section though.

//Matt