Re: Emacs documentation sources

[Stefan Monnier]

>> > Do you really claim that the size of DOC strings is of no concern at
>> > all?
>> 
>> Since they reside in the .elc files and/or the DOC file and are only
>> ever loaded into memory temporarily when they are actually consulted,
>> they take up only disk space, not main memory.  Just like the manual.

> Perhaps you should re-read th relevant sources before you make such
> assertions.  What I see there is that each displayed doc string is
> kept in memory twice, and it remains in memory until the next GC.

> So, temporary or not, the doc strings do in fact occupy memory for
> more than a split second.

Absolutely negligible.  If you add 10KB to a docstring (i.e. a *lot* more
text), that will add in the order of 10-20KB to the Emacs process on the
conditions that the user has looked at that docstring.  I.e. it will bump
the process's size from maybe 10MB to 10.02MB.  If you add 10KB to each and
every docstring ever written, then the process size will grow by about 10KB
times the number of docstring viewed in *Help*.
Absolutely negligible.


        Stefan