why are custom properties so fast? RAM?

[Richard Gaskin]

Erik Hansen wrote:
> --- Sarah Reichelt <sarahr at genesearch.com.au>
> wrote:
> 
> 
>>using a custom property	1.9 ticks
>>using a custom property with messages locked
>>0.3 ticks
>>
>>This is almost 2500 times faster than the field
>>method!!!!!
> 
> so is the custom property in RAM
> and the field contents on the hard drive?

When a stack is opened, the whole thing is in RAM, field properties and all.

The difference is the overhead associated with each storage mechanism:

While fields appear to us to be simple to work with, that's all smoke 
and mirrors -- under the hood the engine's doing a lot of work setting 
up storage for style runs, calulating visual line breaks, interacting 
with the OS font routines, etc.

In contrast, all a property does is hold the data.

While arguably too lengthy to be considered good writing, the "two 
buckets" analogy describes the relative difference in what's going on 
under the hood:
<http://lists.runrev.com/pipermail/use-revolution/2005-March/052967.html>

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
  __________________________________________________
  Rev tools and more: http://www.fourthworld.com/rev