Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!vsi1!daver!intersil!hamilton
From: hamilton@intersil.uucp (Fred Hamilton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Low Memory and Hanging Forbids
Message-ID: <67.25bb84f0@intersil.uucp>
Date: 22 Jan 90 22:10:56 GMT
Organization: Harris Semiconductor, Santa Clara CA
Lines: 30

--

I've just started running MemWatchII to aid (hopefully) in tracking down
the source of some intermittent crashes in my system.  MemWatch has
identified for me a number of programs that write over low memory.

Now I understand that the OS needs section(s) of memory all to itself
(that's what I'm assuming "low memory" is reserved for), but why do *any*
applications write to low memory?  What's the appeal?  Or is it done by
accident? by compilers?  How and why do all these programs that trash
low mem do it?

On a related note, I've wondered about these "XXXXXXX won't run with my 590
because it was expecting to see 00 in location $00, but an early version
of the FastFileSystem would write different values to location $00 causing
XXXXXXX to crash" messages.  The solution was "get the latest revision of
FFS".  I don't understand that.  Why was game/application "XXXXXXX" writing
to and/or worried about the value in location 0 in the first place.  Why
was FFS "wrong" and the program not?

Finally, since upgrading to WShell1.2, I've gotten a few "Warning-
Hanging Forbid!"  messages after running some applications.  What is a
hanging forbid and how serious is it?   Should I report it to the people
who made the software that hung the forbid?  

Thanks in advance for any enlightment.
-- 
Fred Hamilton                  Any views, comments, or ideas expressed here
Harris Semiconductor           are entirely my own.  Even good ones.
Santa Clara, CA