general fields and memory

[budman48]

I've noticed memory usage goes extremely high when I open a form with table with a .bmp stored in a general field. This table also has other fields which are needed even if the picture is not for a particular program. Why does so much memory get used even if I'm not editing/saving the picture? And is there a better way to handle pictures? Or is there a way to clear the cache without clearing other memory varibles? It seems the memory does not get cleared just by closing the form - is there something else I need to do?

 

[Mike Lewis]

<< Why does so much memory get used even if I'm not editing/saving the picture? >>

Because that's the nature of graphics processing. Images use a lot of memory, especially large images at a high resolution and colour depth.

<< And is there a better way to handle pictures? >>

Probably. General fields are generally a bad idea. It is more efficient to place an image object on the form and to set its Picture property to an image filename when you navigate to a new record. But it depends on what exactly you want to achieve.

<< Or is there a way to clear the cache without clearing other memory varibles? >>

CLEAR RESOURCES should do it.

Mike


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Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk