Re: general ? on 2gs

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Supertimer writes ...
> 
> spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector) wrote:
> 

 ....

> >
> >    It has absolutely nothing to do with the RamFAST, or any other
> >SCSI controller for that matter. I originally used AppleWorks GS
> >on a ROM 3 with 2.125 MB RAM and a single 3.5 floppy drive. There
> >was also my brother's Apple IIgs which was a ROM 01 with 1.25 MB
> >RAM and two 3.5 floppy drives. It was used on both machines and
> >it would *frequently* freeze or display that infamous dialog box
> >telling you to restart AppleWorks GS (with a second button option,
> >pointing to the first).
> >
> >    I lost *dozens of hours* of work writing papers for school
> >using that horrid program, it would CONSTANTLY crash on me and
> >take all my work with it. Let me also point out this was not
> >merely an isolutated incident either, it happened like clock-
> >work, each time the program was used, it would eventually bomb.
> >Even years later, when I ran it with 5 MB RAM and running off
> >a hardrive, it still continued to crash (at that point I was
> >using it for light jobs, like writing half page letters).
> 
> I believe you when you say that you have had problems with
> AWGS.  It is just that other people such as myself have no
> such problems.  For us, AWGS is very stable.
> 
 ....

> 
> I'm still trying to figure out why it is so flaky on some people
> and so stable for others.  I tell you the truth when I say that
> AWGS crashes on me less than my PC gives me the general
> protection fault (you know...."program abc generated an
> exception fault error, click here for details")!
> 
> I had years of enjoyable and productive use from AWGS 1.1.
> There was a time when the program was the most advanced
> on any computer, you know....


     This is a guess; but, it fits the observations made so far: AWGS
crashes on some systems more than others because it is a large
feature-rich system which, aside from having its own bugs which may
relate to specific memory setups, is vulnerable to OS bugs and hardware
glitching.

     For example, the presence of NDA's and Inits will change the way
AWGS is located in memory. Even if the NDA's include no known problem
causers, just their presence and the need to depend upon Mem Mgr to
handle placement of AWGS and resources is one important variable.

     Many users have IIgs's which include power-sucking plug-ins. If
they have not taken the usual steps to eliminate noise on the power
rails, their machine is virtually certain to have noise glitces which
can mess up memory, interfer with processing of interrupts, etc.. With a
large system like AWGS, the odds of hitting messed up memory or having
an interrupt bomb are greater.

     Does the presence of a RamFAST increase the probability of an AWGS
crash? The answer is probably "Yes". But, then, it would be the same for
any hard disk interface. Cards like Second Sight and PC Transporter
should be even worse. Any large complex software system which depends
heavily upon OS features is going to be more crash-prone as OS-user
hardware/firmware/software complexity increases.

     The more things there are to 'go wrong', the greater the
probability that one of them will.


 
Rubywand