(was ProDOS Madness)
I am very familiar with sprinkling programs liberally with FRE(0)
functions...in my database handlers, I execute the function quite often,
and that generally keeps the garbage collection time fairly short. It
is a trade-off, though, since it does noticeably impact program execution
speed. For most of the programs I write, this isn't a problem as the
garbage-collection delay is covered up by the user interface...I usually
do it after displaying a page of information so that the user is (in
theory, at least) admiring the display at the time. In my little
slow-running utility (took 38:55:xx to run!), though, I discovered just
how much garbage collection slows things down!
Next time, I'll sprinkle 'FRE' commands and see how that compares...!
Thanks for the help! I guess I also got an explanation of why I got a
BUFFERS NOT AVAILABLE error trying to open one file under ProDOS. I
must've had another buffer open for something, and didn't have room to
create another on account of all the strings...
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
--
/-\ _ |\
/XXX\ /X\ /X \ XX
/XXXXX\ /XXX\ /XXXX<##> X XXXXX_ (hard hat area... )
_/XXXXXXX\__/XXXXX\/XXXXXXXXo XXX XXXXXXX (.sig under construction)