On Sunday, April 30, 2023 06:24:14 PM Default User wrote: > > What is 'compacting', what is it meant to do?
The definition of compacting as I "grew up" with it (not sure where I first encountered it is the idea that in some applications, the act of "deleting" something doesn't actually delete it from the file, instead it is marked for deletion (and no longer visible to the user). Compacting actually deletes that thing, and shrinks the file to avoid any wasted (empty") space previously used by those deleted things. I suspect I first encountered that back in the early days of DOS based databases, even prior to dBase II. -- rhk (sig revised 20230312 -- modified first paragraph, some other irrelevant wordsmithing) | No entity has permission to use this email to train an AI. If you reply: snip, snip, and snip again; leave attributions; avoid HTML; avoid top posting; and keep it "on list". (Oxford comma (and semi-colon) included at no charge.) If you revise the topic, change the Subject: line. If you change the topic, start a new thread. Writing is often meant for others to read and understand (legal documents excepted?) -- make it easier for your reader by various means, including liberal use of whitespace (short paragraphs, separated by whitespace / blank lines) and minimal use of (obscure?) jargon, abbreviations, acronyms, and references. If someone has already responded to a question, decide whether any response you add will be helpful or not ... A picture is worth a thousand words. A video (or "audio"): not so much -- divide by 10 for each minute of video (or audio) or create a transcript and edit it to 10% of the original. A speaker who uses ahhs, ums, or such may have a real physical or mental disability, or may be showing disrespect for his listeners by not properly preparing in advance and thinking before speaking. (That speaker might have been "trained" to do this by being interrupted often if he pauses.) (Remember Cicero who did not have enough time to write a short missive.) A radio (or TV) station which broadcasts speakers with high pitched voices (or very low pitched / gravelly voices) (which older people might not be able to hear properly) disrespects its listeners. Likewise if it broadcasts extraneous or disturbing sounds (like gunfire or crying), or broadcasts speakers using their native language (with or without an overdubbed translation). A person who writes a sig this long probably has issues and disrespects (and offends) a large number of readers. ;-) '