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Evaluating one of the following inputs

CurrentValue[EvaluationNotebook[], WindowElements]

CurrentValue[$FrontEndSession, WindowElements]

CurrentValue[$FrontEnd, WindowElements]

Options[EvaluationNotebook[], WindowElements]

Options[$FrontEndSession, WindowElements]

Options[$FrontEnd, WindowElements]

reveals that the default notebook window contains an element called "MemoryMonitor".
I did not see any change after removing it with

CurrentValue[EvaluationNotebook[], WindowElements] = 
 DeleteCases[CurrentValue[EvaluationNotebook[], WindowElements], "MemoryMonitor"]

Therefore my question is:
What is "MemoryMonitor" or what's it good for and why shouldn't I remove it?

By default the special kinds of notebooks created with the following comments don't have any WindowElements:

  • CreatePalette
  • CreateWindow@PaletteNotebook
  • CreateDialog
  • CreateWindow@DialogNotebook
  • MessageDialog
Karsten7
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  • I'm using Mathematica v10.3 under Windows 10, if that matters. – Karsten7 Oct 25 '15 at 11:13
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    It is obsolete, Mac-only functionality that has been removed from the front-end about 13 years ago. – ilian Oct 27 '15 at 18:36
  • @ilian But why is it still one of the default WindowElements? Shouldn't it be removed, if it's obsolete? It's just pollution now. – Karsten7 Oct 27 '15 at 18:42
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    I don't know.. probably just an oversight. There is no actual code behind it. – ilian Oct 27 '15 at 19:07
  • @ilian Thank you for the clarification. I just removed it with CurrentValue[$FrontEnd, WindowElements] = DeleteCases[CurrentValue[$FrontEnd, WindowElements], "MemoryMonitor"]. – Karsten7 Oct 27 '15 at 19:13

1 Answers1

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I think it is a vestigial artifact of older days when systems had only a few megabytes of memory and Mathematica was always in danger of running out of kernel memory. I don't think it makes any difference whether or not you remove the specification string "MemoryMonitor" in any recent version, because the widget it controlled no longer exists.

Similarly, on OS X, it doesn't make any difference whether or not I remove the specification string "MenuBar", because the OS X version of Mathematica doesn't implement window-specific menu bars.

m_goldberg
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