Ran out of RAM or address space? I've run out of RAM trying to ridiculous stuff like native builds on tiny embedded systems (due to whack code bases that wouldn't cross compile). Though, in the end I overcame this with even more perverse solutions like adding swap space via USB1 flash.

That aside, that is the third time in a couple of months that I have heard people mention situations where they ran out of RAM without explaining why swap could not at least work as a stop gap measure.