MEMORY

You could do this to get the amount of free bytes available:

FreeBytes&=MEM(_maxAvail)

The problem with this, I think, is that even though there is that much available you may not be able to alocate it as one block. The FNs below will do what you want. FN binarySearach& will find the maximum amount of memory that can be alocated as one continous block, to within less than1 KB. And, because it uses a binary search, it is fast. Call it like this:

FreeBytes&=FN binarySearach& 'how much memory do we have to work with

You can then alocate a handle of that size. (I usually alocate a little less, like 90%, to leave some free memory for the program to use.)

'--------------------------Binary search Functions ---------------------------
'The next 3 functions finds the amount of free memory
'----------
'this fn uses recursion to
'adds smaller and smaller chuncks of memory to the handle
'to find the largest amount of free memory to within 1 KB
LOCAL FN searchDown&(num&,searchsize&)
  searchsize&=searchsize&>>1 'divide by two (shift bits right)
  LONG IF searchsize&>1024 'leave some bytes free
    numOK&=num&+searchsize& 'adds the next chunck
    hand& = FN NEWHANDLE (numOK&) '_(numOK&)'can we make a handle?
    isHandZero=hand&>0 '0 means it did not work
    whatError=SYSERROR 'zero if no error
    DEF DISPOSEH(hand&) 'get rid of handle
    LONG IF isHandZero=0 OR whatError<>_Noerr
      num&=FN searchDown&(num&,searchsize&) 'didn't work, try adding the next smallest number to the original number
    XELSE
      num&=FN searchDown&(numOK&,searchsize&) 'did work, try adding the next smallest number to the new number
    END IF
  END IF
END FN=num& 'return the largrest number that we could make a handle with

'----------
'this fn keeps doubling handel size until error
LOCAL FN searchUp&
  numOK&=1024 'start with 1 KB
  err=_False 'no error so far
  DO
    hand& = FN NEWHANDLE (numOK&) '_clear (numOK&)
    whatError=SYSERROR
    LONG IF hand&=0 OR whatError<>_Noerr
      err=_True 'exit loop
    XELSE
      numOK&=numOK&<<1 'no error then multiply by 2 (bit shift)
    END IF
    DEF DISPOSEH(hand&) 'close handle
  UNTIL err
  numOK&=numOK&>>1 'go back to the last one that was good
END FN=numOK& 'return largest handle that was created
'----------
'this fn finds the amount of free memory
LOCAL FN binarySearach&
  numOK&=FN searchUp& 'keep doubling handel size until error
  freeByts&=FN searchDown&(numOK&,numOK&) 'adds smaller and smaller chuncks of memory to the handle
END FN=freeByts&
'----------