Mail Archives: djgpp/2000/02/17/15:45:39
On Thu, 17 Feb 2000, Kalum Somaratna aka Grendel wrote:
> Well A _good_ 32 bit OS should be able to handle and terminate any badly
> behaving program gracefully. And gracefully doesn't mean crashing ;-).
> Thats what protected mode is all about, One app shoudn't be able to mess
> with another apps or even the OS's memory and resources etc.
>
> If a dos app can cause a fault in ntvdm and bring the whole system down
> that shows that windoze (because of it's bad design) can't handle a badly
> behaved app very nicely.
As much as we all love to bash MS, let's keep things in proper
perspective: they had an *enormously* hard problem on their hands.
Providing an OS which will run DOS, 16-bit Windows, and 32-bit Windows
programs on the same platform unaltered is a *daunting* task. Anyone
who reads a book on Windows internals which describes the amount of
trickery and thunking between different layers, should realize how hard
it is.
Would you rather have Windows discontinue support for legacy code?
Probably not.
I actually think that given all this complexity, Windows works
surprisingly well. With some discipline, I manage to keep my system up
and running for days and weeks without crashing.
Linux, of course, doesn't have to deal with that problem. But then
Linux breaks back-compatibility with itself regularly anyway...
> Also have you noticed
> that when you are running a vesa game full screen and you accidently press
> that #@$*! M$ startmenu key , you cant re switch to your game as windoze
> says that it can't redraw the display etc.. very nice I suppose ;-)
This one is in the FAQ.
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