Total maximal size of data

[Alf P. Steinbach]

* AlexM:
> On Jan 25, 2:07 pm, Terry Reedy <tjre... at udel.edu> wrote:
>> On 1/25/2010 2:05 PM, Alexander Moibenko wrote:
>>
>>> I have a simple question to which I could not find an answer.
>> Because it has no finite answer
>>
>>> What is the total maximal size of list including size of its elements?
>> In theory, unbounded. In practice, limited by the memory of the interpreter.
>>
>> The maximum # of elements depends on the interpreter. Each element can
>> be a list whose maximum # of elements ..... and recursively so on...
>>
>> Terry Jan Reedy
> 
> I am not asking about maximum numbers of elements I am asking about
> total maximal size of list including size of its elements. In other
> words:
> if size of each list element is ELEMENT_SIZE and all elements have the
> same size what would be the maximal number of these elements in 32 -
> bit architecture?
> I see 3 GB, and wonder why? Why not 2 GB or not 4 GB?

At a guess you were running this in 32-bit Windows. By default it reserves the 
upper two gig of address space for mapping system DLLs. It can be configured to 
use just 1 gig for that, and it seems like your system is, or you're using some 
other system with that kind of behavior, or, it's just arbitrary...


Cheers & hth.,

- Alf (by what mechanism do socks disappear from the washer?)