Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!bsu-cs!dhesi
From: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: CTRL-ALT-DEL key
Message-ID: <6414@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 30 Mar 89 22:27:33 GMT
References: <1623@arctic.nprdc.arpa> <3818@nicmad.UUCP> <234@sppy00.UUCP>
Reply-To: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Distribution: na
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana
Lines: 26

In article <234@sppy00.UUCP> jmv@sppy00.UUCP (Jim Vickroy) writes:
>I don't think you're crazy. There are *very* good reasons for disabling the
>softboot keys. Systems which maintain database can't tolerate a reboot right
>in the middle of an update, for example.

A philosophical point:  For an application to trap keystrokes so
they bypass the ROM is bad practice for several reasons.

1.   This introduces incompatibility with many of the machines on the
     market.

2.   The user may already have deliberately installed special software
     to trap ctrl-alt-del, your application may cause chaos when it
     tries to trap the same key sequence.  Don't second-guess the
     user by adding your own keyboard driver.

3.   If the database is so fragile that a power outage will cause
     unrecoverable damage, then it is badly designed, and trapping
     ctrl-alt-del is no solution.

The right way to avoid corruption of a database is to make sure that
any partial update of the database is reversible even if a system crash
or a reboot occurs during the update.
-- 
Rahul Dhesi         UUCP:  <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!dhesi
                    ARPA:  dhesi@bsu-cs.bsu.edu