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From: jlc@atux01.UUCP (Jim Collymore)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: Why does HyperCard slow up & SuperCard 1.5 doesn't?
Summary: I tried the lockRecent - NO CHANGE in the speed degradation
Keywords: sequential, repetitive math calculations
Message-ID: <119@atux01.UUCP>
Date: 5 Sep 90 21:05:28 GMT
References: <110@atux01.UUCP> <44445@apple.Apple.COM>
Organization: AT&T CET, Piscataway, NJ
Lines: 38

In article <44445@apple.Apple.COM>, jdevoto@Apple.COM (Jeanne A. E. DeVoto) writes:
> In article <110@atux01.UUCP> jlc@atux01.UUCP (Jim Collymore) writes:
> >I have a stack that allows you to create a number of cards, and when you click
> >on a button it looks at a given line on a given field, takes a numerical value
> >placed on that line, adds it to a container, then goes to the next card, etc.
> >        [...]                      (Example:  on card 1 (of 10 to be counted
> >say) it displays in the message box:  "10%", on card 2 "20%" and so on.)  Now
> >in HyperCard (HC) 1.2.5 this process starts to visibly slow down after getting
> >about 33% of the way through a large group of cards (i.e., more than 24 cards).
> >I have converted the stack to a SuperCard project and this operation runs with
> >NO DEGRADATION in speed!
> 
> This is just a guess, but are you setting the lockRecent property in your
> handler? I haven't tested this, but it seems possible that HyperCard takes
> longer to add a card to the recent cards cache when the cache is already
> full. Thus, if you're running this handler shortly after starting up HyperCard
> (when you have visited few cards), maybe the recent cards cache is being
> filled a few cards into the handler, and thereafter, extra time is needed to
> flush the first card and add the newly seen card.

Jeanne:

I tried to play with the lockRecent property, and I checked the "Recent" window
before trying my experiments.  The recent window does not acknowledge having
gone through ANY other cards than the ONE where I initiated the tabulation
script.  It also made no difference using the lockRecent property in either the
button script that calls my user-defined function (located in the stack
script).  Nor did it make a difference when I placed the lockRecent property
in the function.

It would seem that for this type of operation, HyperCard 1.2.5 is NOT capable
of running as fast as the the same stack converted to, and running, SuperCard
1.5.

Note:  These scripts were run on an SE/30 with System 6.0.4 under the Finder.


						Jim Collymore