[comp.text.tex] TeX memory sizes

dhosek@frigga.claremont.edu (Hosek, Donald A.) (10/12/90)

In article <1080@tharr.UUCP>, gustav@tharr.UUCP (Paul Moore) writes...
>The version
>of TeX I am using (ArchiTeX for the Acorn Archimedes) was built with
>all the compiled in parameters as big as, if not bigger than, those in
>TeX - the program. Does LaTeX with the new font selection scheme really
>require a "bigger than usual" TeX, or am I missing something here?

The "default" memory sizes in TeX.WEB reflect ten-year old
technology and the very modest needs of plain TeX. Before
anything else is loaded, LaTeX will use 43000+ bytes in the
string pool, 23000 memory words and define over 2000 control
sequences. None of this takes account of the space that will be
used by the style file and user.

"Usual" TeX will be very close to the maximums on most of the
memory sizes since current TeX usage is very demanding of
resources (as any PiCTeX user can doubtless confirm).

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