Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!netnews.upenn.edu!cps3xx!usenet
From: usenet@cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Stability of Commodore/Amiga
Keywords: Unix, Amiga, OS/2, DOS
Message-ID: <6899@cps3xx.UUCP>
Date: 13 Mar 90 16:24:44 GMT
References: <476087196@deimos.cis.ksu.edu> <19000039@attcc.UUCP> <2840@mtuni.ATT.COM> <676@xdos.UUCP> <3881@nmtsun.nmt.edu> <48ffd21f.db93@edsel.engin.umich.edu> <3883@nmtsun.nmt.edu> <2854@mtuni.ATT.COM> <5362@sugar.hackercorp.com>
Reply-To: dailey@cpsin1.UUCP (Chris Dailey)
Organization: Engineering, Michigan State Univ., E. Lansing
Lines: 55

In article <5362@sugar.hackercorp.com> karl@sugar.hackercorp.com (Karl Lehenbauer) writes:
>In article <2854@mtuni.ATT.COM> psu@mtuni.ATT.COM (Paul Siu) writes:
[...]
>Nonetheless, the Amiga is for the most part a superbly architected machine
>that continues to put its contemporaries (PCs under DOS & the Mac, and even
>in many ways your beloved OS/2) to shame.

Agreed.

>We have also developed ways for dealing with living in an unprotected
>environment and, for the most part, Amigas don't crash -- mine doesn't
>unless I'm developing and doing something weird.  I know quite a few Mac and

Mine does.  Sorry, but some of us live by PD.  And some of us are not
perfect programmers, either.

>hardcore DOS people, and they seem to think it's quite normal for their
>machines to lock up and require resetting or power-cycling.  Ever since 1.2
>came out, I *never* have crashes that I can't attribute to a specific activity
>or program.
>
>I wonder, Mr. Siu, if you're not over here to "stimulate conversation."
>In other words, make trouble.  You've been writing a lot of articles
>like <2854@mtuni.ATT.COM> lately.  Do you have an Amiga?  Are you thinking
  (How do people actually remember article numbers, anyway?)
>about getting one?  Are you a missionary here to convert us to OS/2?  Or are
>you just committed to "Volume! Volume! Volume!"?  Enquiring minds sort of
>want to know.
[...]
>-- uunet!sugar!karl	"As long as there is a legion of superheros, all else

It sounds to me like Mr. Siu merely wants, as many of us, the Amiga to
be the best it could be.  Some people have things running in the
background like a BBS or maybe some other application and would like to
feel free to play around and do other things with their computer safe in
the knowledge that the other tasks won't be trashed along with the one
that they are working with.  The fact of the matter is (at least in my
mind) with memory protection it would be easier to track down the
'rotten egg' programs because it would be obvious which program is
misbehaved.  Also with a core dump (or just freezing things for a
debugger to take over) it would be easier to debug a program because you
would be able to look at it right where you left off.

Here's a question:  is there an MMU available for the 68000?  If so, why
doesn't Commodore make it part of the ECS?  It doesn't have to be
supported in 1.4, but maybe in 1.5?  That would make it so there would
be only one chip update that (supposedly) everyone would go through
instead of two that only some people would do for the MMU.

Just the ramblings of
 _   /|
 \`o.O'    Chris Dailey, Amiga Enthusiast
 =(___)=   dailey@cpsin1.cps.msu.edu
    U      - "Meow."
(Bill the Cat not original--imitation intended as a form of flattery.)