From: ao950 AT FreeNet DOT Carleton DOT CA (Paul Derbyshire)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Win95 weirdness (was Re: Configuring perl5004 problem)
Date: 31 Oct 1997 06:51:47 GMT
Organization: The National Capital FreeNet
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Message-ID: <63bv63$397@freenet-news.carleton.ca>
References: <630fct$3bc_002 AT mrw DOT panix DOT com>
Reply-To: ao950 AT FreeNet DOT Carleton DOT CA (Paul Derbyshire)
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Anyone else notice Win95 (and win3.1 was even WORSE for this) sometimes
generates protection fault messages or no apparent reason from things that
are either perfectly valid, or were perfectly valid and ostensibly haven't
changed? I quit writing windows apps because (whether I used VB,
Smalltalk, or whatnot) Windows apps can work fine, and then one change
which is still valid code with valid pointer/memory use, and it can
suddenly generate GPFs; and since nothing is actually wrong with the code
that you can find, and the bug seems to have somehow been compiled in in
some irrevocable way, that entire copy is lost and you'd better have a
backup...this strange inconsistent and unreliable behavior drove me to
abandon Windows development entirely.

As an example of this I wrote a Windows app for browsing hypertext
documentations. It worked fine. Then one day it GPFed on use, and has
never worked since, without any major chang, and even after undoing the
minor one. It was written in Smalltalk.

And, one day, all of a sudden nytime I used "more" in a DOS box it caused
a GPF on exit, after it was done "more"ing something and was about to
return to the prompt. I never changed anything about more, never
bit-twiddled the EXE (or is it a .COM?) or anything. Windows just suddenly
decided MORE was not allowed. Sheesh.

--
    .*.  Where feelings are concerned, answers are rarely simple [GeneDeWeese]
 -()  <  When I go to the theater, I always go straight to the "bag and mix"
    `*'  bulk candy section...because variety is the spice of life... [me]
Paul Derbyshire ao950 AT freenet DOT carleton DOT ca, http://chat.carleton.ca/~pderbysh