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### A.2.3 Memory Monitor

Control Window Memory Monitor

The memory monitor is a small widget at the bottom left of the Control Window which gives an indication of TOPCAT's memory usage. The numbers indicate the currently used and maximum heap size that Java will use (e.g. "64 M" for 64 megabytes), and the two darker colours filled in from the left indicate the current total and used proportions of this. It's not necessary to understand in detail what these mean, but if the darkest (used) colour comes to fill up the whole area, the application will slow down and then signal an Out Of Memory Error. See Section 10.4 for some tips on what to do if this happens.

If you click on the memory monitor, you will request that the Java Virtual Machine performs a garbage collection round, which may have the effect of reclaiming some memory and modifying the current usage. This is not really useful (Java will garbage collect at sensible times without prompting), but you can do it if you're bored.

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TOPCAT - Tool for OPerations on Catalogues And Tables
Starlink User Note253
TOPCAT web page: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/topcat/
Author email: m.b.taylor@bristol.ac.uk
Mailing list: topcat-user@jiscmail.ac.uk