If you take another look at what I wote I think you'll see that that is exactly what I was saying; with many processes in process, simply interrupting the one that happened to push the allocator over the limit isn't a sufficient response.
*Phew* Thanks, I'm relieved (I was trying to get to the server but I can't get to it right now).
So we're in agreement about the problem, let's try to find a good solution.
You know, sometimes I wish we'd have swap space to really utilize. One of the nice things about swap space is that degradation is continuous so it's not the sudden "boom - you're out of memory" situation but rather a graceful "starting to get tight ... getting tighter ... now we're really running into trouble" situation. And most times you're running out of patience and interrupt whatever was going on long before you ran out of swap space.
Right now I think I'll find a good solution of aqueous caffeine compounds in elevated enthalpy dihydrogen monoxide.
*grin*
Cheers, - Andreas