🚀 go-pugleaf

Recently there's been discussion of why Lightspeed Pascal "gives an out of 
memory message" after using SigmaEdit.

	As I've said before, and will say again, the bug is not a shortage of free 
memory; the message is:

	"Can't run your program due to a memory blockage (perhaps an open Desk 
Accessory?)"

This is quite different from being out of memory.

The reason that Lightspeed Pascal is sensitive to this is that when you 
execute a program it needs to create a block large enough to hold your 
program's stack and heap (the sizes set in "Run Options"), plus some swap 
space. So the first thing it does is a heap compaction to get the block big 
enough. If some unfriendly desk accessory has left some things locked down, or 
has gone away without releasing ALL of its storage, there's going to be heap 
fragmentation such that Lightspeed Pascal gives this message.

If you get this message and you don't have any open DA's, a likely cause is 
that you have use a DA or an FKEY or CDEV or some other bit of code that is 
guilty of sloppy memory management. and leaves locked blocks behind.

>Can Think fix this bug in LSP 2.0 ?  Please, guys :-)))...

	It's not a Lightspeed Pascal bug. It's a bug in SigmaEdit (in this particular 
instance) and in other auxillary stuff that leaves garbage behind (in general 
instances). The Control Panel in System 4.1 was another offender; it would 
load and lock the cross-shaped cursor and leave it locked; this cause exactly 
the same symptoms.

	It is worth noting that these offending DA's will cause problems in other 
applications' memory management too. It's not just Lightspeed Pascal; however, 
Lightspeed Pascal is more sensitive to heap constipation than most 
applications, because of the unique nature of its heap demands.

Remember, Desk Accessories are supposed to "take only pictures, leave only 
footprints". Applications have priority here. In short, if an application 
misbehaves after a certain DA has been used, it's because the DA has done 
something to the environment and is therefore the DA's fault, not the 
applications.

Lightspeed Pascal will support MultiFinder, probably in the next release.

		--Rich

===================================================================
Richard Siegel
THINK Technologies, QA Technician (on leave)

I'm not physically at THINK, so my information may be out
of date. Be forewarned.

Arpa: rich.siegel@andrew.cmu.edu
UUCP: {decvax,ucbvax,sun}!andrew.cmu.edu!rich.siegel
==================================================================