Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!hacgate!ashtate!dbase!awd
From: awd@dbase.A-T.COM (Alastair Dallas)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms.programmer
Subject: Re: What the heck is this AUX device?
Summary: Yup, that's about it.
Message-ID: <1991Feb2.190407.24906@dbase.A-T.COM>
Date: 2 Feb 91 19:04:07 GMT
References: <1991Jan31.182905.7337@javelin.es.com>
Organization: Ashton-Tate, Inc.
Lines: 24

In article <1991Jan31.182905.7337@javelin.es.com>, lwallace@javelin.es.com (Lynn Wallace) writes:
> Several of the Microsoft SDK sample programs, as well as Notepad and others,
> cause my system to hang for about a minute, then display an "error writing
> to device AUX/cancel/retry" message.  
> I conjecture this:  The AUX is supposed to be my auxillary monitor, which I
> don't have, and the message is coming from the debugging version of Windows
> which detects a normally passable condition but wishes to inform me of the
> "problem".  This sounds pretty naive I know, but I'm fairly new to PC's in
				 ^^^^^
> general, and all my knowledge of the PC is in the Windows environment.  

Not naive at all.  I've got over ten years in the PC software business, at
least four years exposure to Windows (only six months active Windows
dev, though).  In short, I'm a professional :-).  Your conjecture exactly
duplicates my thought processes from six months ago.  I never looked back.
The question remains what the professionals at Microsoft thought they
were doing when they left this hardware-specific trap in their shipping
product.  I'd be curious if "real" Windows programmers actually hook
up a third monitor to catch these errors or whether they ignore them
like us.  Funny thing is, I've got an old H19 kicking around; I just
don't think it's worth 5 minutes of my time (or 2 sq ft of desk space)
to experiment.

/alastair/