Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!noao!arizona!dave
From: dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave P. Schaumann)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Help --> How to prevent the visit from the dreaded guru
Keywords: Flip answers are no help
Message-ID: <611@caslon.cs.arizona.edu>
Date: 4 Jan 91 19:00:54 GMT
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson
Lines: 51

References: <2468@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca>
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson

In article <2468@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) writes:
!In <1776@winnie.fit.edu>, rcs91900@zach.fit.edu ( Charles Stockman /ADVISOR-Clutterham) writes:
!![ He's a new user knocking his head against the guru ]
!
!Write programs that don't cause GURUs.
!
!! [...]
!
!You want it to not GURU when it has scrambled its brain? Either something has
!caused drastic problems or it hasn't. If it has, you don't want to keep running,
!lest you be smitten by worse things that cessation of activity. If it has not,
!you of course do not want to chat with the GURU, but then he won't be there
!when all is well.
!
!hardware, get it fixed.
!
!!I hope with the new Os: and the new machine that this can be changed because it 
!!makes programming on the amiga a hassle
!
!A new OS will not protect you from errors in your code, or ill-behaved
!programs, or hardware failures. Investigate; do some digging.
!
Those are some rather flip answers to what, IMHO, is the Amiga's greatest
shortcoming: any program can crash the whole system quite easily.  To my mind,
this is unacceptable in a multitasking machine.  I believe that CBM has got
away with it up til now because no-one else even had multitasking.  This is now
changing.  When IBM, Apple, NeXT, and Atari all have multitasking machines out
there, it's going to be a different market place.  Who wants a computer when
one unstable program makes the whole platform unstable?

There is a solution to this.  It's called virtual memory.  It takes an MMU,
which is not available to the 68000.  However, the 68030 has one.  I think this
is something CBM should be seriously considering putting into their next major
release of Workbench.

Please tell me that at least Amiga Unix has virtual memory...


!The best way to accelerate an MsDos machine is at 32 ft/sec/sec.
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!|   //   Larry Phillips                                                 |
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Dave Schaumann		| My folks went to uunet.uu.net, but all
dave@cs.arizona.edu	| they got me was this lousy .sig...