I just wondered if lists and also variables are stored as assets … that would be kinda good to know because if they're stored in the JSON then you have the problem that they are only able to be 5MB big, that's not small but also not huge and all of them would have to be so small, not 10MB each.

Also, does anyone know why the JSON has the 5MB limit and not 10 or more?

1. I'm pretty sure lists and variables are stored in the JSON file, not as assets.
2. I'm not sure. Maybe it's to prevent abuse? But that's probably not the reason. Well, assets have a 10 MB limit, so the code having only 5 MB is actually not that bad, and 5 MB can hold appx. 20000 blocks and some lists things, according to flowermanvista.

-Zyte- wrote:

1. I'm pretty sure lists and variables are stored in the JSON file, not as assets.

Ah thanks, I'm gonna open a suggestion. Lists can become quite large …

-Zyte- wrote:

2. I'm not sure. Maybe it's to prevent abuse? But that's probably not the reason. Well, assets have a 10 MB limit, so the code having only 5 MB is actually not that bad, and 5 MB can hold appx. 20000 blocks and some lists things, according to flowermanvista.

To be honest, 20000 blocks are not particularly huge. Cool projects usually already have 1000 blocks, if you for some reason want to make a compilation of your favourite 25 games, that can be a problem.
Also, wdym by abuse? If you want to upload a JSON, I would use assets.

4mat wrote:

-Zyte- wrote:

1. I'm pretty sure lists and variables are stored in the JSON file, not as assets.

Ah thanks, I'm gonna open a suggestion. Lists can become quite large …

-Zyte- wrote:

2. I'm not sure. Maybe it's to prevent abuse? But that's probably not the reason. Well, assets have a 10 MB limit, so the code having only 5 MB is actually not that bad, and 5 MB can hold appx. 20000 blocks and some lists things, according to flowermanvista.

To be honest, 20000 blocks are not particularly huge. Cool projects usually already have 1000 blocks, if you for some reason want to make a compilation of your favourite 25 games, that can be a problem.
Also, wdym by abuse? If you want to upload a JSON, I would use assets.

What I mean by “abuse” is misusing an limit and stuff like that, but you could just forget that part, because it's probably not even possible.

I haven't heard of anyone running into the 5MB limit unless they are using large lists.
It's unlikely anyone would do that and have 25 games in one project. They can probably just use 25 separate projects.
(And “cool” projects usually have a lot more than just 1000 blocks.)

-Zyte- wrote:

1. I'm pretty sure lists and variables are stored in the JSON file, not as assets.
2. I'm not sure. Maybe it's to prevent abuse? But that's probably not the reason. Well, assets have a 10 MB limit, so the code having only 5 MB is actually not that bad, and 5 MB can hold appx. 20000 blocks and some lists things, according to flowermanvista.

When you drag a list into your backpack, it does not save the contents inside it. Also, in the project JSON file, there is no visible point where the list contents are defined. My best guess is that if you have a list containing a lot of data (like 100,00+ items), Scratch might take a second to load it as assets. Because text takes up so little data, the loading time is spent loading bigger files like images and sounds.

-Snipet- wrote:

-Zyte- wrote:

1. I'm pretty sure lists and variables are stored in the JSON file, not as assets.
2. I'm not sure. Maybe it's to prevent abuse? But that's probably not the reason. Well, assets have a 10 MB limit, so the code having only 5 MB is actually not that bad, and 5 MB can hold appx. 20000 blocks and some lists things, according to flowermanvista.

When you drag a list into your backpack, it does not save the contents inside it. Also, in the project JSON file, there is no visible point where the list contents are defined. My best guess is that if you have a list containing a lot of data (like 100,00+ items), Scratch might take a second to load it as assets. Because text takes up so little data, the loading time is spent loading bigger files like images and sounds.

No, lists are always stored in project.json no matter the size. Try this:

• Make an empty project.
  
• Create a list and add a few items to it, or a bunch of items.
  
• Save the project.
  
• Extract project.json and view it in a text editor. You will see the list contents defined…twice.
  

Flowermanvista wrote:

ou will see the list contents defined…twice.

Ouch! So you just store 1 MB or something in a list and since JSON isn't exactly the smallest possible format it's gonna use 1.5 MB or something but since it's saved twice it's gonna be 3 megs?!

4mat wrote:

Flowermanvista wrote:

ou will see the list contents defined…twice.

Ouch! So you just store 1 MB or something in a list and since JSON isn't exactly the smallest possible format it's gonna use 1.5 MB or something but since it's saved twice it's gonna be 3 megs?!

The overhead will depend on how many list items you have (it's about 20 bytes per list and 3 bytes per item), but yes, it would probably take up like 2.1ish MB.

That's bad. That's really not good. Why is it declared twice?

4mat wrote:

That's bad. That's really not good. Why is it declared twice?

This is pushing the limits of my knowledge, but examining project.json suggests that one copy is for the actual list variable, and the other copy is for the list monitor.

If you want more answers, you may have to dig into the code yourself.

I reported this to be moved to “advanced topics”

Flowermanvista wrote:

4mat wrote:

That's bad. That's really not good. Why is it declared twice?

This is pushing the limits of my knowledge, but examining project.json suggests that one copy is for the actual list variable, and the other copy is for the list monitor.

If you want more answers, you may have to dig into the code yourself.

I wonder if the project would still load properly if one of the copies of the list is deleted in the project.json