Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!elroy!spacely!djb
From: djb@spacely.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Daniel J. Burns)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: A/UX window systems, Mac toolbo
Message-ID: <5917@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Date: 25 Mar 88 21:09:10 GMT
References: <8449@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU> <76000174@uiucdcsp>
Sender: news@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov
Reply-To: djb@spacely.UUCP (Daniel J. Burns)
Organization: Space/Astrophysics Grp, JPL
Lines: 33

In article <76000174@uiucdcsp> gillies@uiucdcsp.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>I believe that virtual memory does very little to solve the memory
>headaches for developers.  As a former developer, I believe these
>headaches are intrinsic to writing bullet-proof software.

   I'm taking this to mean you were not a UNIX developer.  Virtual memory,
   in fact, is one of the cornerstones of modern operating system design.

   Indeed, with some operating systems, the poor software developer has to
   keep track of things that a decent operating system would take care of
   for him.  This is not the case in UNIX.

>[ ... other stuff deleted ...]
>Most software written for UNIX is very unprofessional and I'm not
>suprised source licenses are so cheap.  When a UNIX box begins to run
>out of VM, all hell breaks loose an many programs crash inexplicably.
>The same thing happens when the machine exhausts disk space.

   Granted, there isn't as much business and personal productivity
   software on UNIX platforms as on PC's, but this is changing in step
   with the user community.  

>There would be hell to pay if this happened to a customer running an
>editor they paid real $$$ for.  If he lost work because the editor
>crashed, I would be inclined to believe he deserved his money back.

  And Macs don't crash?


Dan Burns
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(djb@spacely.jpl.nasa.gov)