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jfernan751 · (This post was last modified: 05-05-2015 08:39 AM by jfernan751.)

Hello everyone.

What I am about to explain is quite simple. As a student, I require a lot of memory to store programs on my Prime. The problem is that if I decide to load more than, let's say 5MB of programs in it, it says insufficient memory. Due to that, I have done some research and I've discovered that it is because it kind of "preloads" everything in the RAM memory instead of ROM.

Because of that, you can only have like 9MB or so available for your own stuff. However, i found a "solution" which is doing a reset after sending in my programs in order to clear RAM.

Obviously that is not a proper solution as you have to do the same if you want to load more than 9MB of your stuff without reseting.

In addition to that, if you finally manage to have all your programs stored, when you connect your calculator to connectivity kit, it crashes and you have to reboot again...

Wouldn't be easier if HP just developed some code to free that used memory as soon as you are finished running your program? Just like computers do...

Gerald H · 05-05-2015, 08:56 AM

Sounds like a big problem.....except, over at

http://www.hpcalc.org/prime/math/

the largest programme is 14 KB & most are 1 KB, so you could manage to load all of those.

Perhaps you could try to optimise some of the programmes you have to reduce their size?

jfernan751 · 05-05-2015, 09:01 AM

There's no problem when it comes to those. There is when you have mviewergx-converted pdf files, which are around 850KB

kharpster · 05-05-2015, 01:02 PM

Curious as to why one would use a calculator to store PDF files. My preference is to use my phone to store PDF files. I also have the Prime emulator on my Android phone so I have access to both on the same device.

Marcio · 05-05-2015, 05:13 PM

(05-05-2015 01:02 PM)kharpster Wrote: Curious as to why one would use a calculator to store PDF files. My preference is to use my phone to store PDF files.

+1

Tim Wessman · 05-05-2015, 06:31 PM

(05-05-2015 05:13 PM)Marcio Wrote:
(05-05-2015 01:02 PM)kharpster Wrote: Curious as to why one would use a calculator to store PDF files. My preference is to use my phone to store PDF files.

+1

Exams...

kharpster · (This post was last modified: 05-05-2015 11:28 PM by kharpster.)

(05-05-2015 06:31 PM)Tim Wessman Wrote: Exams...

I did not realize it was OK to have the test answers readily available on your calculator in the form of a PDF document. But it does make sense... Maybe the Prime just needs more RAM (8-16GB) then.

jfernan751 · 05-06-2015, 02:21 PM

(05-05-2015 11:25 PM)kharpster Wrote:
(05-05-2015 06:31 PM)Tim Wessman Wrote: Exams...

I did not realize it was OK to have the test answers readily available on your calculator in the form of a PDF document. But it does make sense... Maybe the Prime just needs more RAM (8-16GB) then.

Would be perfect but that's not the main point. It's as simple as freeing your ram after using anything you want to.

kharpster · 05-06-2015, 02:44 PM

I do understand your point of desiring some form of garbage collection on the device and loading things in and out of RAM on an as needed basis. I would defer this to Tim Wessman as to the overhead that this requires. I prefer the device to be as fast as possible, so keeping things in RAM meets my needs. And, coming from an era when 16KB of RAM was a lot, I have learned as a software developer that no matter how you manage it, the more memory the better...

jfernan751 · 05-06-2015, 02:47 PM

Absolutely true. Imagine calculators with 8-16GB of RAM...

Tim Wessman · 05-06-2015, 02:50 PM

The reason as I said in that other post that those converted images take so much space is that there is currently no way to storage images directly. They then turn into really large files when converted into text.

Once you have direct access to PNG files then the programs that are currently so large can be slightly modified to be much, much smaller and the issue pretty much goes away for reasonable use.

Tim Wessman · 05-06-2015, 02:51 PM

The reason as I said in that other post that those converted images take so much space is that there is currently no way to storage images directly. They then turn into really large files when converted into text.

Once you have direct access to PNG files then the programs that are currently so large can be slightly modified to be much, much smaller and the issue pretty much goes away for reasonable use.

jfernan751 · 05-08-2015, 06:54 AM

That's a good way to overcome the problem. Believe it would be good to improve memory management on the Prime though.

Thanks Tim.

eried · 05-08-2015, 02:48 PM

Another temporal workaround is to study for the exam and type few hints as a cheat sheet in the calculator instead of a pdf.

Thomas_Sch · 05-08-2015, 05:19 PM

(05-08-2015 02:48 PM)eried Wrote: Another temporal workaround is to study for the exam and type few hints as a cheat sheet in the calculator instead of a pdf.

+1
And writing down the essentials e.g. to the notes will help to remember
them automatically ;-)