>I always thought that "segmentation fault: core dumped" was pretty
>useful. ;)
<GRIN>
>I have to admit, though, that the OS/2 traps were the most ridiculous
>error messages. Worse than the BSoD. Once you learned to read traps,
>though, you could conquer the world.
Not nearly as bad as a BSOD. That kills your box. OS/2 will just display
the error and allow you to proceed. A minor trap like 3175 described
below does not cause your system to turn to jello. Though if OS/2 gives
you a BLACK Screen of Death (Trap 000D,000E...), it is really really dead
-- "Please manually transcribe this 4k screen of Hex and text and call
IBM".
Like your gonna. ;-0
OS/2 has allways had a neato replacement (diagnostic) kernel which allows
terminals to access the system even if it is crashed. I have never used
it.
OS/2's Help facility documents the System, not just the Operating System.
The documentation that ships on the OS/2 install cd is beyond compare in
the industry. IMHO, no other operating system is as well documented.
Notice I didn't say 'complete' because Linux has the most complete but
it's docs are dense and scattered.
The OS/2 documentation is so good, so full, and so beautifully presented
I'd have to show it to you for you to believe it. Graphics, screen dumps,
all fully indexed and searchable. If you print a 'book' such as the
'Reference and Commands' text, it prints as a rather large (600+ page)
book - complete to the cover, copywrite info, page numbers, headers and
footers, index, everything. Like PDF but better and in color, these
documents are perfect on the screen. Printing them is just a waste of
paper but if you do, the printed document comes out ready for binding.
Warp 4 ships with more than twenty such books on the install cd.
The docs are so complete, if you were the Man From Mars or just an
intelligent computer illiterate, you could go from learning how to use a
mouse to a WAN-Guru-who-programs in Java, Rex, Visual C++, and Visual
Basic without ever leaving the help facility. I owe my career to OS/2.
After a four year U.S. Navy imposed 'computer hiatus' from 87' to 91', I
worked as a silkcreen printer then got a tech job with a Brazillian-owned
company in Miami. I discovered OS/2 2.0 and thought it was too big and
slow on my 4mb 386sx. Later I got a 486 with 24mb ram and OS/2 2.11. The
rest is history. I went from Atari 8-bit and CP/M character-oriented boxes
to the OS/2 GUI and CLI. Just like that. I might have gone Amiga but IBM
got thier gui technology from Commodore.....
OS/2 2.xx and Warp never has made me much money directly, but the
experience and knowlege I gained from it make it a simple trick to network
other operating systems. From X.25, TCP/IP, Netbios, Banyan, to you name
it, Warp will interoperate with a rock or a rocketship and will clearly
explain the hows and whys of doing it.
Since my experience with OS/2 began in 92'/93', I've discovered IBM to be
astonishgly anal retentive. Everything about OS/2 is thorough to the n'th
degree. Even things that really don't matter.
I really wish the operating system market hadn't turned so sour. We can
blame MS and rightly do so, but I.B.M. didn't do thier part by staying in
the game long enough for the courts to put things right.
*******************************************************************************************
OS/2 Command Interpreter version 4.5
[C:\]help sys3175
SYS3175: A program in this session encountered a problem and
cannot continue.
EXPLANATION: An access violation exception occurred and was generated when
an attempt was made either to load or store data in an inaccessible
location or to execute an inaccessible instruction. This exception
corresponds to both the Intel 80386 processor general protection fault
(#13), caused by an invalid access attempt, and the page fault (#14),
caused by an attempt to access an uncommitted page or a page with
incorrect attributes for the desired operation.
ACTION: If you purchased this program, contact the supplier of the
program. If you are the developer of this program, refer to the
information in the register.
[C:\]
*******************************************************************************************
--
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey S. Worley
President
Complete Computer Services, Inc.
30 Greenwood Rd.
Asheville, NC 28803
828-277-5959
THETechnoid_at_home.com
-----------------------------------------------------------
Received on Wed Oct 04 2000 - 07:42:10 BST