Freezes when too much "due" cards?

[acetylator]

Dear Ernie,

For last cca 10 days I am experiences mysteriousshort-time freezes on my Iphone 4 and I beleive that Flashcards is responsible for it. Here is the story:
I have three decks (Russian-German words), 1817, 185 and 627 cards each. The first one (1817) contains a lot of simple words that I know from before, so during my intensive use of your program in the middle of February I added about 1000 "new" words (I mean there state became "due"). I use space-repetition method so every day I had to repeat about 200 words. In the end of February I didn't have a chance to use Flashcards for about a week, so when I run Flashcards about a week ago I have seen, that I have had 1016 words that were "due" in the first deck, 25 due words in the 2nd deck and 129 due words in the 3rd deck. This is where trouble started. Each time I try to practice any of those three decks (I practice "due" words), first 10-15 words are OK, and then everything starts slowing down - screen and buttons stop reacting and all you can do is just wait. Then, after about 5-10 seconds everything gets back to normal, but only for a short time, like 20 seconds and then freezes again.
Before I decided to write this post, I have done a lot of testing - I terminated all background processes, I put iPhone into fly mode to stop all possible data transfers, I even tried to monitor CPU usage activity in iStat and SysInfo - it didn't show any spikes of CPU activity (but probably because during these freeze periods CPU activity has not been logged at all?). I tried enable/disable iPhone firewall... Well, to make long story short, nothing helped. When Flashcards is not running, everything is OK. When Flashcards is running (also in background) - those freezes are happening all the time. Therefore I think that Flashcards is responsible for it, maybe because there are way too many "due" cards in my decks?
Tech info: I have iPhone 4 32GB, iOS 4.1, free space around 15 GB, last version of Flashcard Deluxe (legally bought in AppStore). The phone is jailbroken with full access to file system, so if you want me to send you any files or anything for investigation, just let me know.

Thank you very much in advance for your attention.
Ace.

[Ernie]

Hi Ace,

I wouldn't think a background app would slow down the device, as I assume my app is completely paused while in the background.
Since you offered, can you email me your Flashcards.sql file? I can try it out myself on my iPhone 4 to see if I can duplicate the issue on my end and we'll go from there.

Ernie

[acetylator]

Hi Ernie, I have emailed you requested file. Also, just in case anyone might experience same troubles as me, here is an update:
I have been going through "due" words in the first deck quite
extensively for last 3 days and now have 365 cards which are due.
I get less freezes now than before, but they still occur when I go
through "due" words. I have also noticed that those freezes do not
occur if I am in the main menu of the program (e.g. when I see the
deck list), they occur only when I go through "due" words.
I have also decreased "Max Cards in Round" parameter in Space
Repetition Settings from "All" to "30" but it didn't help - freezes
still occur from time to time. To be completely sure, I have tested it
once again right now - I have started a session of 30 "due" words and
experienced a freeze on the 18th word (the number is always different,
I could find any pattern in their occurence).
In last two days I think I have not experienced freezes when
Flashcards was running in the background - I am not sure whether it is
because I have managed to reduce "due" words in the first deck from
1016 to 365, but those freezes are just gone and I haven't installed
any new software nor did I change any settings. Basically, all I was
doing with my iPhone in last couple of days was calling, texting and
going through Flashcard decks.
Anyway, my resume is that over last two days Flashcards became more
stable and definitely less prone to freezes - the only factor I
can think of is a reduction of "due" words in the first deck.

[Rasimcan]

I would like to give a feedback on the spaced repetition mode at this point:
Why not introduce an option to manipulate the initial 20 hours interval of the active cards? This would allow users to set higher initial intervals to easier or less favorable decks which one wants to visit less frequently but consistently.
This would be a fine solution to the problem described above I think. Ernie, what do you think?

[Ernie]

Rasimcan,

There are options to change what I think you are taking about:
Deck options > Card order > spaced repetition settings > First Interval After Correct / First Interval After Strong

[Guest]

Oh great, a place I've never been before:D I felt the absence of one little thing though, I would like to be able to by-pass the "due if streak=0" function for cards that I get wrong. That's because if I get a card wrong once, I don't like acting as if I am getting it correct 10 seconds later, that just doesn't feel like it.
Can one do that too or is it really absent?

[Ernie]

You can't turn that behavior off. If streak is 0, it's "due".

BUT, if you get it right 10 seconds later, it treated differently that if you just got right the first try.
For example, a card has an interval of 10 days. You get it wrong, and now has an interval of 5 days. 10 seconds later you get it right... it still has an interval of 5 days and will will be shown again then. I think the scheduling is just like you might expect it, but you get an extra change to practice it.

(The rule is... if the you get a card correct but it's not *truely* due, then the interval doesn't change.)