Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!convex!news
From: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.programmer
Subject: Re: Complexity of reallocating storage (was users command crap)
Message-ID: <1991Feb07.073359.28667@convex.com>
Date: 7 Feb 91 07:33:59 GMT
References: <8921@sail.LABS.TEK.COM> <1991Feb07.013637.6542@convex.com> <17660:Feb706:04:4191@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
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Reply-To: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Organization: CONVEX Software Development, Richardson, TX
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From the keyboard of brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein):
:In article <1991Feb07.013637.6542@convex.com> I wrote: 
:> Regarding problem 1, I like to see error messages in this form:
:>     program: operations on object: reason
:
:It's even better when you're given an error level: debug, info, warning,
:critical, fatal.

Gee, where did we get those from? :-)

:> On problem #2, I think that if you have no stderr, (and even if you do
:> for system programs) you should also syslog the problem.  It's not a
:> perfect solution, but it's surely better than nothing.
:
:Okay, you're right. In alt.sources is my first distributed program that
:actually makes some use of syslog. 

Congrats.

:I'm still worried that people will
:think syslog is reliable or secure, and I'm very worried that someone
:may come to depend on syslog or believe that it isn't worth using better
:systems. But for the moment I guess it is the best alternative.

Right.

:> I know people say not to check for errors that you don't know how to
:> handle.  I think they're wrong. That's what asserts are all about.
:
:Huh? An assertion is just one type of error handler, and a very clumsy
:one at that. Dumping core is rarely the right way to handle an error in
:a production program.

Well, maybe so.  But even the kernel does this sometimes:

    panic: trap: unresolved kernel pte violation
    (proceeds to dump to swap or some such)

Which to me is just a big "segmentation fault -- core dumped".

Maybe a core dump is too strong, but to keep running when your 
internal assumptions have been proven wrong is just asking for
terrible trouble.

--tom
--
"Still waiting to read alt.fan.dan-bernstein using DBWM, Dan's own AI window 
manager, which argues with you for 10 weeks before resizing your window." 
### And now for the question of the month:  How do you spell relief?   Answer:
U=brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu; echo "/From: $U/h:j" >>~/News/KILL; expire -f $U