RAM usage for DAs

[MultiFinder]

I just noticed something rather interesting. On my Classic II (System 7.1), the calculator takes up 20k of RAM. On the G4 that I'm on (System 9.2.2), the calculator takes up 166k of RAM.

Seeing this, and having nothing better to do with my time, I gave the System 7 calculator a go running under System 9, and it used up the same 166k. Running the System 9 calculator under System 7 wound up using 20k. How does the way these two systems run these wee little apps differ? Does anybody have any idea? The only thing that I can think of is that the G4 might be having to do some translation from 68k-PPC code, but that wouldn't make it use 8x the RAM, would it?

 

[Quadraman]

The only thing I can think is that there may be a minimum memory size that programs take up on the G4 no matter how small they actually are.

 

[Charlieman]

At a guess, perhaps the DA Handler code was changed significantly when the Mac kernel forked into 68K and PPC versions. An interesting test would be to see how, for example, different versions of Mac OS 8.0 or 8.1 handle the DA.