Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ogicse!ucsd!usc!wuarchive!udel!mmdf
From: BARRETT@owl.ecil.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: AmigaOS2.0 Software Failure requesters
Message-ID: <23480@snow-white.udel.EDU>
Date: 3 Jul 90 11:56:58 GMT
Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU
Lines: 31


 
   I have a complaint about a part of the Amiga's OS which remains, to this
day, nearly unchanged from the earliest releases of the Amiga's OS.  I am
talking about thw 'Software Failure -- Task Held' requesters.  Apparently, way
back in the early days of the Amiga when this requester was being designed,
the intention was for it to be truly useful.  The 'retry' gadget would have
done something useful, and the 'cancel' gadget would have done just that -- it
would have canceled the errant task, removing it (and its resources) from
memory.  Unfortunately, the person working on it left (or was layed off)
before it could be completed, and the result was the nearly useless kludge
that remains to this day.

   I was hoping that, with AmigaOS 2.0, this requester would be replaced with
something useful.  I was hoping that a new requester would offer several
options for dealing with the errant task, other than either just letting the
requester sit there or rebooting.  Some options I was hoping for (and which
would not have been too hard to write) were 'Lock Task' (to lock the task and
it's requester, removing the requester); 'Cancel Task' (allow the OS to
attempt to cancel the task and free up is resources); and 'Reboot' (to reboot,
without visiting the GURU first).

   Unfortunately, such changes were not to be.  The 'Software Failure'
requester remains almost exactly the same as in the old OS 1.1 release of the
Amiga's OS.  So, it appears I will still be needing my GOMF kludge, to do in a
kludge what Commodore should be doing in the OS.  Unfortunately, OS 2.0 has
changed things enough that GOMF no longer works, but not enough for it to be
unnecessary.  

   
                                   -MB-