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From: Tom Benedict (smelly@polari.UUCP)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Subject: Need advice on speeding up card find in mega-sized stack
Message-ID: <4097@polari.UUCP>
Date: 16 May 91 14:10:14 GMT
Sender: smelly@polari.UUCP
Reply-To: Tom Benedict (smelly@polari.UUCP)
Distribution: na
Organization: Seattle Online Public Access Unix (206) 328-4944
Lines: 10

Yes!!!  Use card IDs for navigation. As you've found out, card names are
very slow on large stacks. You could set up a look up table  of card names
and IDs and use offset to find the ID from the name. It's very fast.
Batch updating of large numbers of cards is not fast in any case. However 
you can optimize by going to the card for each update rather than
addressing each update via hypertalk. Also avoid making references to
card numbers or 'card x of bg y'. HyperCard has to count the number of
cards in bg y each time and , as you've found, can take minutes.
Your card navigation should be down to a second or so by using the lookup
table and card ID.