Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!rose!ccplumb
From: ccplumb@rose.uwaterloo.ca (Colin Plumb)
Subject: Re: Why Amiga Gurus????
Message-ID: <1991Feb2.070041.5737@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Owner of Many System Processes)
Organization: University of Waterloo
References: <1991Jan31.035105.14277@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> <156@dogmelb.dog.oz.au> <t22918.665454268@ursa>
Date: Sat, 2 Feb 91 07:00:41 GMT
Lines: 24

t22918@ursa (Matt Ranney  ) wrote:
>david@dogmelb.dog.oz.au (David Le Blanc) writes:
>
>>Unix boxes 'segmentation fault' or 'core dump' or sometimes have
>>to reboot!, Macinsloshes give 'System Error'. IBM pc's simply lock,
>
>Why can't Amiga's handle failed tasks like the Unix OS can?  I'd be perfectly
>happy to have my computer tell me that a task failed, and all it's allocated
>resources had been returned.  I'm not an OS programmer, so I don't know why
>this would cause a problem, or how hard it would be, so could someone answer 
>this?  

For cost reasons, the Amiga wasn't built with an MMU, so there is
nothing the OS can do to stop one program from scribbling all over
another.  There is an upside to this, as Amiga message-passing and I/O
is *much* faster than Unix.  But it means there's no sure-fire
enforcement of the rules.

As for resource tracking, it's sorely missed.  Apparently there were
plans to include it, but the Amiga's gestation was rushed by an urgent
need to sell them for money, and it got, unfortunately, lost when Tripos
was invited in to do the file system.
-- 
	-Colin
