Slow macintosh memory allocation (summary)

[cartier@math.uqam.ca (Guillaume Cartier)]

Many thanks to everybody who answered my question:

<---
| I have a program that runs well for some time
| and then gradually becomes slower and slower and slower.
| 
| I have tracked the problem down to the fact that
| when it has becomed very slow, a single
| 
| (make-record :rgbcolor) (or any mac memory allocation)
| 
| takes almost half a second!
| 
| Strangely, at this point, a (ROOM) shows 145K of free
| Mac Heap.
--->

The problem was due to the Mac Heap becoming very fragmented
because of mac pointers and handles that I failed to dispose of.

In solving the problem, MCL's undocumented feature of GC'able
mac pointers was *very* usefull (the GC is much better at keeping
track of what's no longer in use than myself!).

Guillaume.

*********************************************************************
* Guillaume Cartier                 (514) 844-5294 (maison)         *
* L.A.C.I.M.                        (514) 987-4290 (bureau)         *
* Universite du Quebec a Montreal   (514) 987-8477 (telecopieur)    *
* Montreal, Quebec, Canada          cartier@math.uqam.ca (internet) *
*********************************************************************