Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!gatech!ncsuvx!ecemwl!jnh
From: jnh@ecemwl.ncsu.edu (Joseph N. Hall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Proliferating Objects?  How Many Is Reasonable?
Message-ID: <3804@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: 29 Aug 89 20:44:31 GMT
Sender: news@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: jnh@ecemwl.UUCP (Joseph N. Hall)
Organization: North Carolina State University
Lines: 23

In the introduction to the object-oriented extensions in the THINK C 4.0
manual, there is a discussion of efficiency and use constraints.  It's
pretty vague.

If I were to implement something like an object-oriented drawing package,
or some other application that required that hundreds or thousands of
objects (potentially) exist in memory at once, would I be better off
bypassing the Memory Manager, doing my own garbage collection, etc.?
(Let's pretend they were all allocated as relocatable blocks.)

I could imagine a compromise solution, in this case, where I could allocate
array storage for most objects (lines, rects, etc.) since they would all have
a similar structure (bounding rect, pen type/style, ink, mode, etc.), and
then tack on relocatable blocks for the "special" objects (bitmaps, text,
etc.) that required additional information.  But still ... 

I haven't seen a good discussion of the limits of the Memory Manager and
I'm curious to know what, in fact, its practical limits are.

v   v sssss|| joseph hall                      || 4116 Brewster Drive
 v v s   s || jnh@ecemwl.ncsu.edu (Internet)   || Raleigh, NC  27606
  v   sss  || SP Software/CAD Tool Developer, Mac Hacker and Keyboardist
-----------|| Disclaimer: NCSU may not share my views, but is welcome to.