BARRETT@owl.ecil.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett) (07/03/90)
I have a complaint about a part of the Amiga's OS which remains, to this
day, nearly unchanged from the earliest releases of the Amiga's OS. I am
talking about thw 'Software Failure -- Task Held' requesters. Apparently, way
back in the early days of the Amiga when this requester was being designed,
the intention was for it to be truly useful. The 'retry' gadget would have
done something useful, and the 'cancel' gadget would have done just that -- it
would have canceled the errant task, removing it (and its resources) from
memory. Unfortunately, the person working on it left (or was layed off)
before it could be completed, and the result was the nearly useless kludge
that remains to this day.
I was hoping that, with AmigaOS 2.0, this requester would be replaced with
something useful. I was hoping that a new requester would offer several
options for dealing with the errant task, other than either just letting the
requester sit there or rebooting. Some options I was hoping for (and which
would not have been too hard to write) were 'Lock Task' (to lock the task and
it's requester, removing the requester); 'Cancel Task' (allow the OS to
attempt to cancel the task and free up is resources); and 'Reboot' (to reboot,
without visiting the GURU first).
Unfortunately, such changes were not to be. The 'Software Failure'
requester remains almost exactly the same as in the old OS 1.1 release of the
Amiga's OS. So, it appears I will still be needing my GOMF kludge, to do in a
kludge what Commodore should be doing in the OS. Unfortunately, OS 2.0 has
changed things enough that GOMF no longer works, but not enough for it to be
unnecessary.
-MB-dlarson@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dale Larson) (07/03/90)
I don't know which version of 2.0 you are looking at, but when WordPerfect
bombs on my release 2.0 I get the option to hold the task or to reboot the
machine. I haven't made anything else bomb yet, but I assume it would do
the same...
--
There are two ways to improve on human factors in computing:
to make the programmers less stupid and/or to make the users less stupid.
Both are necessary, but neither is likely.
-Dale Larson, Digital Teddy Bear (dlarson@blake.acs.washington.edu)andy@cbmvax.commodore.com (Andy Finkel) (07/04/90)
In article <23480@snow-white.udel.EDU> BARRETT@owl.ecil.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett) writes: > Unfortunately, such changes were not to be. The 'Software Failure' >requester remains almost exactly the same as in the old OS 1.1 release of the >Amiga's OS. So, it appears I will still be needing my GOMF kludge, to do in a >kludge what Commodore should be doing in the OS. Unfortunately, OS 2.0 has >changed things enough that GOMF no longer works, but not enough for it to be >unnecessary. No matter how I configure my kill file, people still mail me things they want me to respnd to :-( Anyway, apparently you aren't using a release version of 2.0, since the release version says : SUSPEND and REBOOT Perhaps you should preface your comments with the version number of the beta you've seen, rather than give an incorrect impression. > -MB- -- andy finkel {uunet|rutgers|amiga}!cbmvax!andy Commodore-Amiga, Inc. "Of course it's the murder weapon. Who would frame someone with a fake?" Any expressed opinions are mine; but feel free to share. I disclaim all responsibilities, all shapes, all sizes, all colors.
BARRETT@owl.ecil.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett) (07/04/90)
It seems I was a little too quick with that last message. I was
basing my impressions of the "Software Failure" requesters in AmigaOS2.0
on a version running on a demo A3000. It seems that Commodore DID
improve these requesters a bit with the actual release. I stand
corrected.
-MB-peterk@cbmger.UUCP (Peter Kittel GERMANY) (07/04/90)
In article <23480@snow-white.udel.EDU> BARRETT@owl.ecil.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett) writes: > > I have a complaint about a part of the Amiga's OS which remains, to this >day, nearly unchanged from the earliest releases of the Amiga's OS. I am >talking about thw 'Software Failure -- Task Held' requesters. Apparently, way > [...] > I was hoping that, with AmigaOS 2.0, this requester would be replaced with >something useful. I was hoping that a new requester would offer several >options for dealing with the errant task, other than either just letting the >requester sit there or rebooting. Some options I was hoping for (and which >would not have been too hard to write) were 'Lock Task' (to lock the task and ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ (oh boy......) >it's requester, removing the requester); 'Cancel Task' (allow the OS to >attempt to cancel the task and free up is resources); and 'Reboot' (to reboot, >without visiting the GURU first). I agree that the Retry option of this requester is of no visible use for me. But the requester *IS* useful. It says clearly that one (of several) tasks got corrupted, the rest of them still active. And it gives you the wise advice to close all your disk activities and then to reboot. If *does not boot immediately*, so you are able to save the rest of your work. And you *should* follow this advice, because this wild task may have corrupted some vital informations for those other tasks or the OS which maybe is not visible in the moment. The other features you would like to see, are at this stage simply impossible. The corrupted task is already halted (what you name 'Lock Task'). But cancelling or removing it is impossible because the Amiga OS doesn't know which resources were occupied by this very task (see the discussions about resource tracking in other threads). And the 'Reboot' option is not multitasking friendly, as I explained above. -- Best regards, Dr. Peter Kittel // E-Mail to Commodore Frankfurt, Germany \X/ rutgers!cbmvax!cbmger!peterk
limonce@pilot.njin.net (Tom Limoncelli) (07/04/90)
In article <23577@snow-white.udel.EDU> BARRETT@owl.ecil.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett) writes: > It seems I was a little too quick with that last message. I was > basing my impressions of the "Software Failure" requesters in AmigaOS2.0 > on a version running on a demo A3000. It seems that Commodore DID > improve these requesters a bit with the actual release. I stand > corrected. No problem Marc! We wouldn't have expected anything less from you. :-) -- tlimonce@drew.edu Tom Limoncelli tlimonce@drew.uucp +1 201 408 5389 tlimonce@drew.Bitnet "You'd better move ovah limonce@pilot.njin.net ...here comes a supernova" -The B-52's.