What does it mean to Garbage Collect on the TI-83 Plus calculator?

Question

I just added a program to my Ti-83 plus calculator. After playing around with the program, I exited it. Now its asking me if I want to Garbage Collect. What does this mean? Should I press yes or no?

Answer 1

Garbage collection is something that is done in all computer languages although usually it is hidden. Languages assign variables with values, especially strings (words) where it is much faster to use some new memory instead of constantly rearranging memory. At some point, the unused choices have to be cleaned up. In your case, it is asking if the variables in that program are to be thrown away - normally because if you save the variables you can call them up to look at them to see how the program left them.
Unless you plan on analyzing them, answer yes and throw them away.
It got called that because in more complicated situations, the system can look through the variables list and determine which ones are no longer needed (garbage) to be collected and memory recovered for further use.