CGI question

[Richard K. Herz]

Robert Brenstein <rjb at rz.uni-potsdam.de> wrote in response to
xbury.cs at clearstream.com:

> If I am not mistaken, MC always load stacks fully in memory.
> Furthermore, if I recall what I read in docs or on this list (it
> comes from Scott Raney in either case), MC becomes inefficient when a
> stack has a very large number of cards. Using a database engine
> extension is the way to go then.

Searching stacks with a large number of cards appears much slower in MC than
in HyperCard.  I exported my HC databases into text (saved in disk files or
MC stack custom props) with "records" and "fields" marked up with XML. MC
database-front-end stack then loads text into RAM, searches with MC offset()
and similar functions, displays hits in one results card.  This works fast
enough for me for a 7000 record, 6 MB text file.

Rich Herz
herz at ucsd.edu
http://ReactorLab.net