MAILING #1 A while back I posted a shared string manager to replace Merc's and fix the 'read-only/never freed' problem. Due to the complexity of the code (maybe?) there was only one person interested, Jason Dinkel since obviously there was not much need until OLC came along. With my str_dup, free_string the shared heap can be used as the STANDARD C str_dup while retaining the ability to share strings. Usage counts allow this. The strings still hashed at bootup but the hash table is destroyed so during runtime there is no more hashing. Boot time should be similar to the stock code. The following mailing will step through the patch into a stock Envy base, which should be identical to Merc's string stuff. Mailing number 3 will be the new code module, ssm.c Three replacement functions are in there: str_dup(), free_string(), fread_string() There are also some locals that you need not even look at unless you are into stupidly complex, mundane pointers and casts. Improvements are almost certain but I wrote it from top to bottom and thats how it has stayed. Fusion Next Mailing....