Huge dictionary, 1 min to create, 6 to delete

[haaserd]

As a learning exercise, I decided to use the python
dictionary in a program which tries to create crossword
puzzles (solutions less clues).  In doing so I created a
dictionary with about 1,000,000 entries.  This takes about a
minute on my AMD 700 processor, with very little(no) disk
activity.

My problem is that when the program ends, it takes about 6
minutes, during which there is very heavy disk activity.  As
a test, I did a dict.clear(), and had the same result.

Is this the garbage collection problem mentioned briefly in
a few discussions?  Or am I just hitting a Windows 98 paging
problem unrelated to python?  I have 128 MB of memory.

TIA

Roger Haase