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From: chrise@hubcap.clemson.edu (Chris Everhart)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Why Amiga Gurus????
Summary: Well...
Message-ID: <12916@hubcap.clemson.edu>
Date: 5 Feb 91 00:55:30 GMT
References: <1991Jan31.035105.14277@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> <156@dogmelb.dog.oz.au> <3680.27ad65e7@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu>
Organization: Clemson University, Clemson, SC
Lines: 30

In article <3680.27ad65e7@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu>, rlcollins@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (Ryan 'Gozar' Collins) writes:
> Are Programs so hard to write for the Amiga that every PD prg is bug 
> ridden? Or is a bad experience with a minute few. I've used many other 
> computer system, with tons of PD/Shareware sw, and I've only had problems 
> on very RARE occasions. Case in point, on my ST, I really only use one or 
> two pieces of commercial software, the rest is PD/Shareware, and have never 
> really had many problems. (I know the chance of crashing is greater in a 
> multi-tasking Environment, especially without hardware protection, but 
> wouldn't the programmers know how to deal with this?)

Well, actually, simple programming of the amiga is quite easy with the
appropriate compiler.  However, when you mess with the operating system, as
most of the really useful pd progs do, you can quite easily run into problems
with multitasking.  Other computers, like a VAX or some other such, are much
easier to write programs for because if your program does something nasty, it
aborts and tells you.  On the Amiga, it will keep on running unless it really
messes up bad.  Unfortunately, it might run 99 out of 100 times in a seemingly
perfect manner, and the 100th time it could lock up the system.  If you've
ever seen code for parallel processing that handles critical regions, you would
be able to understand just how hard multiprogramming can get.  And, actually,
multiprogramming on other computers is just as hard.  For instance, I'm working
on a multitasking operating system for the IBM compatibles, and there are all
sorts of problems with it.  Unlike the amiga, it doesn't guru...it just locks
up.  I also can't use any DOS services unless I serialize them because they
weren't written with multitasking in mind.

Anyway, hope this all helps.

Chris Everhart
chrise@hubcap.clemson.edu