LiveCode Forums.

I'm starting to write a "flash card" app for my kids to use for school studies. I could design it to use two cards and simply go back and forth between the two for the question and answer; or I could have as many cards as there are questions and answers and simply move through the stack of cards.

I assume using many cards makes the program MUCH larger and therefore is not as "memory" or "storage" efficient, so I assume the first choice generally would be best. But I don't know how much "overhead" is associated with each card, so I don't know under what circumstances it would really make a difference. (For example, a rule might be that "either approach is fine with fewer than 25 cards, but using 25 or more cards is too inefficient and the number of cards should be reduced" - or something like that). Is there a lesson or tutorial somewhere that discusses guidelines on when it is OK to use many cards and when it is better to minimize the number of cards used in the app?

Thanks.

Hi labrat,

you can start to worry after your stack has reached the amount of >2000 - 3000 cards


Best

Klaus

I would worry less about size and think more about long term usability. I see similar apps mentioned here quite often, and I always think that making the question/answers an editable text file would be a better app than hard coding them into the cards. That way it could be used for multiple subjects without going back to LiveCode every time you wanted to change a question.

I have done speed tests, and, like Klaus said, there is little to concern yourself with until you are in the thousands of cards. After 5000-7000 cards, navigation, sorting and other tasks slow noticeably.

That said, I would stick with the card metaphor, unless you really have a LOT of questions. These are simple to maintain, search and edit, and give a nice lesson in stack creation and authorship. That there are many ways to make this happen is something you will learn later, as you become more proficient.

Craig Newman

Thank you all very much!