Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ASC.SLB.COM!rxb
From: rxb@ASC.SLB.COM (Rafael Bracho)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.news
Subject: Re: /InstanceVarExtra
Message-ID: <9003191510.AA08873.rxb@plutonium.ASC.SLB.COM>
Date: 19 Mar 90 23:23:59 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 12

If I remember correctly (this is no longer true in NeWS 2.0), Object, in
class.ps, adds InstanceVarExtra to the number of instance variables for
a particular class, to obtain the size of the instance's dictionary.  If
you set InstanceVarExtra to zero, all attempts to 'def' a new variable
in an instance will fail, with a 'dictfull' error.

Given that the initial size of the dictionary is just a hint to the
hashing function in NeWS (i.e., no space is actually allocated), there
is no reason to make InstanceVarExtra small (other than wanting such
errors to indicate unwanted definitions).

					-Rafael