djo7613@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dick O'Connor) (06/20/89)
Yet Another Turbo Pascal 5 question!!!
My wife is working on a TP5 program which does quite a bit of graphics
and even involves redefining the mouse cursor. Working with such
volatile stuff, you can certainly expect a machine hang every *once*
in a while <grin>, but what's been happening lately is puzzling.
She'll finish up a bit of code-polishing and start the recompile -
reexecute process when the screen freezes. After a cold boot, she
finds that the source code file is still "there" (names exists in
the FAT and DIR listing), but it's empty (size=0). In other words,
the old source is wiped clean (or pointers to the location are wiped,
whatever) but the hang occurs before the new source can be written
to the (hard) disk. Norton Utilities was able to do a sector-by-sector
rebuild of the *old* version of the source, but the new changes are
nowhere to be found.
It doesn't happen every time, but it's bitten her twice in one week
while she was "in-between" floppy disk backups! (sorry, shouldn't
grin here, but "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on
me" seems to apply here...) Is this a predictable occurrence when
working with new (buggy) programs in TP5?
"Moby" Dick O'Connor
Washington Department of Fisheries
Olympia, Washington 98504
Internet Mail: djo7613@blake.acs.washington.edu
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DISCLAIMER: I speak only for myself, not for the Department. Here, anyway!
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So long, and thanks *from* all the fish...leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) (06/23/89)
In article <2472@blake.acs.washington.edu> djo7613@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dick O'Connor) writes:
<My wife is working on a TP5 program which does quite a bit of graphics
<and even involves redefining the mouse cursor. Working with such
<volatile stuff, you can certainly expect a machine hang every *once*
<in a while <grin>, but what's been happening lately is puzzling.
<
<She'll finish up a bit of code-polishing and start the recompile -
<reexecute process when the screen freezes. After a cold boot, she
<finds that the source code file is still "there" (names exists in
<the FAT and DIR listing), but it's empty (size=0). In other words,
<the old source is wiped clean (or pointers to the location are wiped,
<whatever) but the hang occurs before the new source can be written
<to the (hard) disk. Norton Utilities was able to do a sector-by-sector
<rebuild of the *old* version of the source, but the new changes are
<nowhere to be found.
<
<It doesn't happen every time, but it's bitten her twice in one week
<while she was "in-between" floppy disk backups! (sorry, shouldn't
<grin here, but "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on
<me" seems to apply here...) Is this a predictable occurrence when
<working with new (buggy) programs in TP5?
Yes. TP keeps the source in RAM. All changes exist only in RAM until
you *explicitly* save the file. My advice is to hit the F2 key (save
file) and *then* recompile/execute.
--
Leonard Erickson ...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools.
Let's start with typewriters." -- Solomon Shortdmurdoch@watstat.waterloo.edu (Duncan Murdoch) (06/25/89)
In article <1496@bucket.UUCP> leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) writes: >Yes. TP keeps the source in RAM. All changes exist only in RAM until >you *explicitly* save the file. My advice is to hit the F2 key (save >file) and *then* recompile/execute. There's also a compiler option that automatically saves changes every time before you run something. It costs a little bit of time on each run, but saves a lot on each crash. It's in the Environment Menu of TINST, under Edit Auto Save, and defaults to Off, presumably to make the compiler look good in benchmarks, rather than in real life. Duncan Murdoch