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From: bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: System Error: coprocessor not installed  --  2nd post
Message-ID: <7161@idunno.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 14 Mar 91 14:23:12 GMT
References: <1991Mar14.011721.13837@cs.uoregon.edu>
Sender: news@idunno.Princeton.EDU
Organization: Starfleet Academy: Princeton University
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In article <1991Mar14.011721.13837@cs.uoregon.edu> mkelly@cs.uoregon.edu (Michael A. Kelly) writes:
>Help!  Someone suggested that certain programming problems resulting in the
>above error were discussed 'recently' in MacTutor.  I can't seem to find
>said discussions in my back issues.  Could someone please point me to the
>right place?

I don't read MacTutor, so I can't help you there, but maybe I can help
explain the `coprocessor not installed' error some.

>(I'm getting this error message only on a IIfx running 6.0.7 - the program
>works fine on a IIx and a IIcx - haven't tried anything else.  BTW, the
>program was written in THINK C, compiled with the coprocessor option off.)

Well, let's think about the problem for a bit.

Apple added the error messages to the system bomb dialogs starting
with System 6.0.7.  Now, whenever there's a system crash, your machine
will consult some sort of table to retrieve the text to show you in an
attempt to explain what happened.

Now, more often than not it seems, the machine's not very good at
figuring out exactly how it died (if somebody killed *you*, would
*you* be very good at sleuthing out your murderer?).  Either the state
of the machine becomes so screwed up that it thinks there was some
sort of math call that didn't make it to a coprocessor, or the error
"coprocessor not installed" is only one of several unrelated errors
that can result in the same error code.

In either case, the message obviously doesn't mean that the program
crashed because you don't have a coprocessor installed, because you do
have one installed.  Thus the error means: something made your machine
crash.  (As if it wasn't obvious beforehand.)

All I can suggest is that, if you wrote the program or have the source
code and a good understanding of how it works, you might want to make
liberal use of MacsBug.  When your IIfx dies, you should be able to
snoop around the current state of the machine to figure out what
happened.

Good luck with it!

     << Brian >>

| Brian S. Kendig      \ Macintosh |   Engineering,   | bskendig             |
| Computer Engineering |\ Thought  |  USS Enterprise  | @phoenix.Princeton.EDU
| Princeton University |_\ Police  | -= NCC-1701-D =- | @PUCC.BITNET         |
"It's not that I don't HAVE the work to *do* -- I don't DO the work I *have*."