Because of its structure, HyperCard does not automatically refresh unused memory following the destruction of a resource, drawing, strings in a text field, etc. For example, a text field has a size of 12 Kbytes. You decide to delete this document by a click on the trash can. Following confirmation of your decision, you note that the free size has significantly increased. This is noticeable by checking the lower right free size field of The Archivist control panel.
It is important to limit the free size of your file by compacting regularly this file as it is for all HyperCard files. The free size of a stack increase as you add and delete documents in The Archivist. An Archivist file whose purpose is to circulate informations without deleting any documents won't see its free size increase. However, if you put several non permanent documents in The Archivist with frequent trashings, you will notice the growth of the free size.
The Archivist has been programmed for you to easily manage this free size. The menu item “Frequency Compression Warnings...” is for you to set a custom friendly visual warning inviting you to proceed to compression as soon as possible. You can then do this by clicking the size and free size fields or by using the “Compact File” menu item under the “Utilities” menu.
By default, the Frequency Compression Warnings has been set to 40Kbytes so that if the free size gets bigger than that, you will be prompted every 3 minutes. You can then decide to ignore the warning and to wait later for compacting. You can set the frequency to a higher value to be prompted less often.
You must also remember that, as your files get bigger, you need more space on your hard disk to compact them because each time, a temporarily file is built then automatically trashed for you by HyperCard.
