Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!bronze!copper!rschmidt
From: rschmidt@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (roy schmidt)
Subject: Re: Abort, Retry, Fail?
Message-ID: <1991Jun20.175312.24171@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Sender: news@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
References: <91170.021723ADVI8733@Ryerson.Ca>
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 91 17:53:12 GMT
Lines: 25

In article <91170.021723ADVI8733@Ryerson.Ca> ADVI8733@Ryerson.Ca (Tom Ng) writes:
>  Does anyone know why msdos sometimes doesn't take you seriously
>when prompted with 'Abort, Retry, Fail?' on read-errors?  Often
>when I select abort or fail the dos just goes ahead and retry's
>anyway.  I haven't noticed any pattern to discern why it does this.

THis is more likely a manifestation of the application (or even DOS
utility) that called the "read from disk" routine.  If the application
designer has not done a good job, then the only response the application
can handle on an abort is to continue the program, and if the program is
in a loop which is terminated once the data has been read, then it will
try to read the data again, regardless of the response you gave the
"read from disk" routine.  The variations range from an endless loop
condition (forcing you to reboot) to "x" number of retries before the
program goes on to other routines.  Some applications do trap the error
code from the disk routine and react accordingly...unfortunately this is
not the majority of apps....



--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roy Schmidt                 |  #include <disclaimer.h>     
Indiana University          |  /* They are _my_ thoughts, and you can't
Graduate School of Business |     have them, so there!  */
