Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Date:	Sun, 14 Feb 1999 15:27:42 +0000 (GMT)
From:	Daniel Barker <sokal AT holyrood DOT ed DOT ac DOT uk>
To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: EMACS and/or Windows 98 crash
In-Reply-To:	<Pine.SUN.3.91.990214130947.15332G-100000@is>
Message-ID:	<Pine.GSO.3.95.990214150359.13004B-100000@holyrood.ed.ac.uk>
References:	<Pine DOT SUN DOT 3 DOT 91 DOT 990214130947 DOT 15332G-100000 AT is>
MIME-Version:	1.0
Reply-To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com

Thank you for your help. I think you have found the problem and I can
easily avoid it (see below).

On Sun, 14 Feb 1999, Eli Zaretskii wrote:

> On Sat, 13 Feb 1999, Daniel Barker wrote:
> 
> > The crash was on exiting DJGPP EMACS 19.34, from FILES menu / Exit
> > Emacs.
> 
> Did Emacs itself print the DJGPP crash traceback?  If so, please post
> it.

No, EMACS itself didn't display any debugging information.

> I sometimes get problems like that when, during the Emacs windowed
> session, I suspend Emacs (with `C-z' or `C-x C-z').  Did you do that?

Recently, I accidentally pressed C-z for the first time. Then I
experimented with C-x C-z. This could well have been earlier in the
session that encountered the problem. 

> If you did, my solution is not to suspend Emacs when it runs on
> Windows.

Fine, as I don't find the ability to suspend EMACS a useful feature. (More
the opposite, with C-z being close to C-x on the keyboard.) 

> You don't need that, anyway (just open another DOS box instead).  I
> think the problem is connected to the code where Emacs restores the
> contents of the display before it exits, but my attempts to debug this
> problem were unsuccessful.

I mention another small display-related problem, in case it's relevant. 
EMACS runs in a large box and shrinks it back on exit, using settings from
the example _emacs: 

(mode4350)
;
(defun my-exit-stuff ()
  "My own exit routine.  Currently just switches to the 25x80 mode."
  (mode25))
(add-hook 'kill-emacs-hook 'my-exit-stuff)
;
(add-hook 'suspend-hook 'mode25)
(add-hook 'suspend-resume-hook 'mode4350)
;

Run from a command prompt, on exit, EMACS restores the screen size to
something slightly different from what it was. The number of columns and
rows seems the same, but the font is a more "squashed up", less readable
one. Simply dragging the bottom of the DOS box a couple of cm enlarges the
font to how it "should" be.

> I also don't exit Emacs on Windows.  It is fired up on start-up and
> runs all the time until shut-down.  Why did you need to exit?

I have associated EMACS with various file types, e.g., .txt, .mft. 
Double-clicking on a few of these leads to many copies of EMACS loaded at
once, since each new file is given its own copy of EMACS. (Perhaps this is
due to a failure in my EMACS configuration.) Also, I might use EMACS to
briefly edit some file from a command prompt, even when it's running
already elsewhere. None of these was the case at the time of the crash. I
was exiting then because I find it aesthetically unpleasing to leave
unused programs running. 

> > I asusme due to some resource leak, the computer
> > typically gets slower and slower, becoming almost unbearable after about a
> > week without re-boot.
> 
> I'm not sure this has anything to do with the crash.  All the data you
> posted points to display-related problems (``Combined VGA/DIB 386
> enhanced mode display component attempted to access memory that does
> not exist.'').
> 
> But if you suspect Emacs is leaking memory, please use some tool that
> reports memory used by DOS programs, and post the data.

I have no reason to suspect EMACS specifically. I was more suspicious of
some interaction between the various programs and my Windows 98 setup. 


Daniel Barker,
Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology,
Swann Building,
King's Buildings,
Mayfield Road,
Edinburgh
EH9 3JR
UK

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