Mysteries of Microsoft Windows and C

[Brent Southard]

In article <7050 at umn-cs.cs.umn.edu> kehyoe at umn-cs.cs.umn.edu (Ong Keh Yoe) writes:
>   First, I would like to know if anyone has experienced that lack of memory 
>has ever caused programs to terminate inexplicably.
	Yes, most certainly.  I haven't played with task spawning within
Windows, but the very thought gives me the willies.

>   Third, is it possible to use Codeview to debug these applications...
	Not yet, but Codeview for Windows (CVW) is coming soon...  I don't
think it will make things much easier than Symdeb does now, and you'll still
need a second monitor or terminal.

>   Fourth, is the Microsoft window programming environment a stable
>environment ?  Is it reliable ?  What are the best tools and methods
>of tackling strange errors ?
	Yes, it is, but I wouldn't have said that 6 months ago.  That's not
because MS has cleaned it up so much, but because I've learned much more
about the complexities of Windows.  Windows is a very well-designed system
-- much better than anything I ever expected to see on a MS-DOS machine.
	As far as tools and methods go:  (1) Learn everything you can about
Symdeb.  Use it.  (2) Use only the Windows-supplied memory management
functions, and use them carefully.  (3) Restrict yourself to the small or
medium memory models, and DO NOT fix segments for long lengths of time --
this is perhaps the biggest no-no of them all.  No matter what you think,
you can fit your program into medium model.  Large model programs work to a
point, but we started experiencing weird memory overlays at some invisible
point with our code.  Besides, Windows can't reliably manage multiple
applications when there are fixed memory sandbars lying about.  (4) See #1,
above.  (5) Allow for a learning curve, no matter what environment you come
from.

>						Thanks
>							Keh Yoe
>							(the happy hacker)
	Good luck,
	brent

Brent Southard                    |  Everybody's trying to be a friend of mine,
Usenet:  ...well!brent            |  Even a dog can shake hands. - W. Zevon
   CIS:  76657,415                |  We fell into love, love's a very deep hole.
 GEnie:  b.southard               |                      - Loudon Wainwright III
-- 
Brent Southard                    |  Everybody's trying to be a friend of mine,
Usenet:  ...well!brent            |  Even a dog can shake hands. - W. Zevon
   CIS:  76657,415                |  We fell into love, love's a very deep hole.
 GEnie:  b.southard               |                      - Loudon Wainwright III