VB6 web application - RM or Non-RM - does it really matter?

Question

I'm supporting a legacy VB6 web application. We generally try to use Retained in Memory (RM) components. However, some components are "borrowed" from a Windows application. Since those components contain forms, they cannot be marked as RM. As a result, we currently have a mix of RM and non-RM components.

The question has been raised, "Would it be ok to use non-RM versions of all components?"

It seems like going this route could lead to scalability and performance issues. Does anyone have experience with this?

Answer 1

Its getting bit dulled with time but as I recall heavy use of components not marked as retained-in-memory caused me so real problems in the past, such as application crashes.

I'd be inclined to add these non "RM" components to an separate COM+ application if that is possible to isolate them from the rest of the web site.

In a light load you might get away with it but I can't recommend it for serious use. What threading model do these components specify?