Re: st: RE: Memory usage in Stata 11 and 12

["Samuel R. Lucas" <lucaselastic@gmail.com>]

Any chance -set memory- can be returned to stata 12.x?  I do not
understand a move that reduces user's control.  If someone allocates
more memory than they have, stata should just error out and inform
them as in the past.  That happening right at the start of a job is
actually helpful.

The big advantage of -set mem- is one can set it for a specific job
and then know that as one does other things, stata can still run
because it has the memory it needs.  If stata changes its memory usage
throughout the job, and offers no ability of the user to set memory,
one could run a really long job almost to the end that doesn't need
much memory until the end, and stata will be allocating fairly low
amounts of memory throughout.  Then, just when it needs more memory,
one may be working on something else, and that can prevent stata from
getting the memory it needs, forcing it to stall or error out.  If the
user had been able to -set mem- they could have prevented this by
setting memory high enough on the stata job to run to completion
without delay.

Unless the new version is able to sense exactly how much memory is
needed for every part of the job from the start of the job, and then
allocate the needed memory and protect it from other programs, removal
of -set memory- seems a step backward.

On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 3:28 AM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:

> That said, -set memory- is gone in Stata 12. It can remain important
> for performance that you reduce memory usage where possible; that's
> always been true. But Stata 12 can't give you memory you don't have
> available. I've said as much three times now!
>
> Nick
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