Re: any emulation docs ?

[pausch@saaf.se (Paul Schlyter)]

In article <1187895634.748335.281310@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.com>,
 <zwsdotcom@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Aug 23, 2:42 pm, pau...@saaf.se (Paul Schlyter) wrote:
>
>
>> > No system ever built, past, present or future, has *full*
>> > documentation.
>>
>> What you say apply only to real systems, i.e. systems already
>> implemented in hardware.  But kestas wanted to write an emulator of
>> "any system", i.e. not necessarily any existing system.  That makes him
>> free to invent any system he wants, produce documentation as
>
>I was about to applaud your well-constructed semantic argument when I
>realized that I'm still right because of the loophole I built into my
>statement: no system ever _built_. Not limited to hardware systems,
>either :)

To nitpick: how can something have been _built_ in the future?  When
we reach the stage when the system is built, it must be in the past,
right?

>The OP can design a system to any arbitrary level of detail on paper,
>but as soon as he implements it there will be environmental factors
>that push system behavior out of the scope of his design. For example,
>the JVM spec is utterly silent on what the JVM should do if every
>third byte of RAM is randomly overwritten with the text of the Iliad.

A basic assumption is that the code is supposed to be uncorrupted.
I mean, how are you supposed to read the Iliad if every third letter is
randomly overwritten with the text of Hamlet, translated to some
foreign language?

A more likely situation: what should the JVM do if the power goes out?
As a matter of fact, the JavaCard specification says something about
this, since a SmartCard can be removed from its reader anytime, and
when that happens the power to it goes out.

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Schlyter,  Grev Turegatan 40,  SE-114 38 Stockholm,  SWEDEN
e-mail:  pausch at stockholm dot bostream dot se
WWW:     http://stjarnhimlen.se/