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From: dan@Apple.COM (Dan Allen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard,comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Latest version (Re: Hypercard stack structure? Corrupted Stack.)
Message-ID: <35524@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 10 Oct 89 15:19:51 GMT
References: <1239@orbit.UUCP>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 23

In article <1239@orbit.UUCP> american@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Jeff Iverson) writes:
>According to the HyperCard product data sheet that comes with Apple Developer
>Services binder the maximum stack size is touted as 4096 megabytes.  
>
>What is this 512 megabyte 'theoretical' maximum?

The noted 4096 megabytes listed in some literature is incorrect.  A
stack can "theoretically" be up to 512 MB in size, although I do not
know if any stacks that large have ever been created.  I believe the
largest one we have created for testing HyperCard is only 200 MB in
size, with about 750,000 cards.

Note that the 512 MB maximum size corresponds roughly with the space
available on a CD-ROM.  In practice, however, such large stacks are hard
to backup and work with.  As stated before, anyone working with very
large stacks should consider upgrading to HyperCard 1.2.5 (and the
requiste System 6.0.4) to take advantage of a few bug fixes which only
affect very large stacks.  Stacks less than 8000 cards and 8 MB in size
are considered, for the purposes of this discussion, as small stacks.

Dan Allen
HyperCard Team
Apple Computer