To quantify what JHoagland is getting at here - each execution of an application setups its own little memory space and allocates resources.  When you load a bunch of tabs in Firefox, the application just uses the necessary 'resources' for each new page display - but not for an entire application launch and initialization process!  Some things are shared no matter how many times an application runs (or how many applications run) - dlls for instance - and it is possible that Word and MSIE are sharing some resources between their 'instances' - but doubtfully the memory space and certain resources.

I agree completely with your assessment!

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.

 -- Bjarne Stroustrup

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