[metapost] ! MetaPost capacity exceeded

[Taco Hoekwater]

Steve MC Han wrote:
> Sorry again I forgot to include metapost at tug.org
> 
> Hi Taco,
> 
> Thank you very much for your explanation, even though I don't
> understand 100%.
> 
> Here are some of my naive questions for you.
> 
> 1. Since many PC has more than 1G memory, why can metapost use them
> all? Is there any specific reason to restrict 800,000 for metapost?

It is 8M, not 800K, resulting in an allocation of 64M of memory.
The upper limit exists because metapost and (pdf)tex allocate
this memory right at the start of the application, and memory
is a sparce resource. Iirc, there is a plan to set the upper
limit to the maximum possible for texlive 2009 (The maximum
safe upper limit is about 134M words, btw).


> 2. Is there anyway just store one picture, and rotate the same
> picture in different location instead of storing all the pictures in
> every different location? In this case, store one picture and
> location storage would be needed. Or is this too dumb question?

No, because it still has to be output and metaposts internal
storage structure does not allow tricks like that. Storable
pictures are on the todo list, but it will be at least a year
from now until I get to it myself.

Best wishes,
Taco