Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!uc!noc.MR.NET!gacvx2.gac.edu!gacvx2.gac.edu!scott From: scott@mcs-server.gac.edu (Scott Hess) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Core dump sanity Message-ID: Date: 11 Apr 91 13:19:46 GMT Article-I.D.: mcs-serv.SCOTT.91Apr11081946 References: <71370@brunix.UUCP> Organization: Gustavus Adolphus College Lines: 36 Nntp-Posting-Host: mcs-server.gac.edu In-reply-to: rca@cs.brown.edu's message of 9 Apr 91 07:19:35 GMTLines: 36 In article <71370@brunix.UUCP> rca@cs.brown.edu (Ronald C.F. Antony) writes: In article scott@texnext.gac.edu (Scott Hess) writes: >in most (almost all, in fact) it's sort of silly. For instance, not >many people have a use for an Icon core, much less a Mathematica >core. > >Since few (if any) of the users will have the source to debug >with anyhow, it's not a loss: Well, but how about sending NeXTmail to the developer of the program with the core file included? As the file get compressed the size of that should be not too bad. And it is still far superior to any customer complaining that well, "He/she did it as always, but the suddenly..." and noone will ever have a clue what went wrong. Of course applications should not dump core in the first place :-) But if they do they should get debugged and to do so a programmer want a core file. Well, I've found cores to be of minimal debugging help. The main problem is that, without a full description of how the user got the program into the buggy state, I can't do much. Sure, knowing that the lineSize variable is too large at some point is nice, but unless I can step through the preceeding 100 lines of code, I'm not going to have any idea of _why_. (I've gotten core files through the mail for Stuart, and that's the experience I've had - might not be standard, who's to say?) Oh, well. It probably was a bad idea, anyhow :-) Later, -- scott hess scott@gac.edu Independent NeXT Developer GAC Undergrad "Simply press Control-right-Shift while click-dragging the mouse . . ." "I smoke the nose Lucifer . . . Banana, banana."