Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!rutgers!apple!dan
From: dan@Apple.COM (Dan Allen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: compression makes stack bigger!
Keywords: compression size
Message-ID: <27204@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 13 Mar 89 17:31:31 GMT
References: <48@citycs.UUCP>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 25

In article <48@citycs.UUCP> luke@citycs.UUCP (Luke Whitaker) writes:
>1) Why should a stack get bigger when I compress it?
>
>2) Even on the original minimum size, why is there such a large overhead in
>loading the data into the stack (eg 13k empty stack + 221k data = 353k stack,
>that's a 119k overhead on 221k of data). Can I do anything to reduce that?

Stacks get bigger when compressed only after importing lots of
information.  Why?  HyperCard creates special information when text is
entered that allows FIND to work so fast.  It must create more (i.e.,
larger) information when the stack size gets bigger.  It does this at
Compact Stack time.  So in your case, you started with an empty stack,
imported a bunch of text (with small hint info), did a Compact Stack
(which grew the hints because now you have 100s of cards), and the stack
is bigger.  So, in this particular instance, Compact Stack grows the
stack size, but it makes find much faster.

As for question #2, if each piece of information is brought in and
appended to the end of the stack, this extra slop should not be present.
However, if after bringing in a card's worth of text you then move it to
the front of the stack or something like that, you will leave wholes
that are not coelesced until Compact Stack.

Dan Allen
Apple Computer