Ata@radc-multics.arpa (John G. Ata) (10/05/88)
Have installed FacII recently on the workbench disk, but while running
this software, I noticed a substantial increase in the number of gurus
and task held messages. Programs which have never gurued before seemed
to be misbehaving. Running without FacII seems to fix the problem. I
have installed only FacII program and the low memory library. It
*seems* to be working ok, except for those gurus. If anyone has any
ideas, please let me know.
Thanks,
John G. Ata (Ata@RADC-MULTICS.ARPA)cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (10/06/88)
In article <4653@louie.udel.EDU> Ata@radc-multics.arpa (John G. Ata) writes: > Have installed FacII recently on the workbench disk, but while running > this software, I noticed a substantial increase in the number of gurus > and task held messages. This is probably not Facc II, rather it is programs that cannot handle low memory situations crashing. One of the biggest problem areas on the Amiga is sloppy programming, and the most common mistake is to not check that a malloc or AllocMem returned anything. Because frankly it is a pain to follow every alloc with a check for the result. Also on UNIX systems with VM malloc fails so rarely that people stop checking the result and it never bites them. Not so on the Amiga. Anyway, that is why a lot of people would like to see a simple guard around low memory like the Atari has, MemWatch is ok, but hardware protection would be nicer. It shouldn't be to tough to build, and would help quite a bit. Anyway, try running MemWatch and see if some of the previously "good" programs are now stomping all over low memory. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
davidg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (David Guntner) (10/07/88)
From article <71727@sun.uucp>, by cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis): > In article <4653@louie.udel.EDU> Ata@radc-multics.arpa (John G. Ata) writes: >> Have installed FacII recently on the workbench disk, but while running >> this software, I noticed a substantial increase in the number of gurus >> and task held messages. > This is probably not Facc II, rather it is programs that cannot handle > low memory situations crashing. One of the biggest problem areas on > the Amiga is sloppy programming, and the most common mistake is to not > check that a malloc or AllocMem returned anything. Because frankly it is > a pain to follow every alloc with a check for the result. Also on UNIX > systems with VM malloc fails so rarely that people stop checking the > result and it never bites them. Not so on the Amiga. Anyway, that is > why a lot of people would like to see a simple guard around low memory > like the Atari has, MemWatch is ok, but hardware protection would be > nicer. It shouldn't be to tough to build, and would help quite a bit. > Anyway, try running MemWatch and see if some of the previously "good" > programs are now stomping all over low memory. Provided I understand the problem correctly, I'll venture a posting.... :-) If you get Gomf, it seems to help this problem as well. I've had a number of times where I didn't get a system requestor, but the Gomf requester pops up out of nowhere after the program in question starts up (I'm also running FaccII), and indicates that low memory got trashed. I click the Gomf gadget, and it announces that the damage to low memory has been repaired, but that it can't identify the faulty program to remove it as well (there is another program provided with Gomf that you can run to get rid of the program, if you want to), which is just as well -- I can then happily go on with what I was doing with the program. --Dave -- David Guntner UUCP: {ames, mit-eddie}!killer!davidg INET: davidg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US "...Different ship, but she's got a good name. Treat --Admiral L. McCoy her like a lady, and she'll always bring you home." "Encounter at Farpoint"
Ata@radc-multics.arpa (John G. Ata) (10/07/88)
From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis%pepper at SUN.COM>
Subject: Re: FacII problem?
In article <4653@louie.udel.EDU> Ata@radc-multics.arpa (John G. Ata) writes:
> Have installed FacII recently on the workbench disk, but while running
> this software, I noticed a substantial increase in the number of gurus
> and task held messages.
This is probably not Facc II, rather it is programs that cannot handle
low memory situations crashing. One of the biggest problem areas on
the Amiga is sloppy programming, and the most common mistake is to not
check that a malloc or AllocMem returned anything. Because frankly it is
a pain to follow every alloc with a check for the result. Also on UNIX
systems with VM malloc fails so rarely that people stop checking the
result and it never bites them. Not so on the Amiga. Anyway, that is
why a lot of people would like to see a simple guard around low memory
like the Atari has, MemWatch is ok, but hardware protection would be
nicer. It shouldn't be to tough to build, and would help quite a bit.
Anyway, try running MemWatch and see if some of the previously "good"
programs are now stomping all over low memory.
Where can one get a copy of MemWatch? Fred Fish?
If I can get a copy, I will look to see if any program is trashing
memory. However, some of the times that it crashed were clearly not a
low memory condition. For example, one time I was running only PCCOLOR
and attempted to assign the parallel printer to the IBM side via LPT1.
That simple program crashed. I believe I only had 30 buffers at the
time with about 500k or more of free memory ( I run on a 1 meg Amiga
2000). Of course, previously run programs may have trashed memory, and
then LPT1 caused the actual crash. Don't really know at this point.
Thanks very much for your repsonse, I appreciate it.
John G. Ataschabacker@frambo.dec.com (Tim, posting for C. Balzer) (10/18/88)
In a recent article John G. Ata (Ata@RADC-MULTICS.ARPA) writes: >Have installed FacII recently on the workbench disk, but while running >this software, I noticed a substantial increase in the number of gurus >and task held messages. Programs which have never gurued before seemed >to be misbehaving. Running without FacII seems to fix the problem. I >have installed only FacII program and the low memory library. It >*seems* to be working ok, except for those gurus. If anyone has any >ideas, please let me know. Well, there's a loooong known bug in FaccII which causes BIG trouble in conjunction with the LowMem.library. Just remove the low mem lib, and everything should work just fine. I reported this bug several times to Perry, but he seems to be busy doing other things. Anyway, FaccII works just fine without the lowmem.library. - <CB> -- _ _ / / | \ \ <CB> aka Christian Balzer - The Software Brewery - < < |-< > decwrl!frambo.dec.com!schabacker OR schabacker@frambo.dec.com \ \_ |_/ / CIS: 71001,210 (be brief!), Phone: +49 6150 4151 ------------ Snail: Im Wingertsberg 45, D-6108 Weiterstadt, F.R.G. "To quote or not to quote..."