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From: bryce@COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (Bryce Nesbitt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Re: Wishlist for 1.3 Executive.
Message-ID: <8707220001.AA01966@cogsci.berkeley.edu>
Date: Tue, 21-Jul-87 20:01:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: cogsci.8707220001.AA01966
Posted: Tue Jul 21 20:01:49 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Jul-87 05:44:39 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
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In article <299@l5comp.UUCP> scotty@l5comp.UUCP (Scott Turner) writes:
>In article <> bryce@COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (Bryce Nesbitt) writes:
>>
>>Not debating the merits of the idea itself... but this would be a very easy
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>thing to do under the current system.   A little program would need to
>>be written that adds a RESET handler to the keyboard.device and on
>>[Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga] sends a FLUSH to each mounted device.  Of course the
>>software may be in a...
>
>First, I don't want ANYTHING to intercept my Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga.

I agree!!!  Anything hanging off that sequence is vulnerable to corruption,
anything it does is suspect.  I said that I was not debating the merits of
the idea itself, but rather poiting out how it could be done.  If I was
god-of-all-things there would be Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga and Ctrl-Amiga-Amiga-Alt.
One would be "safe" and flush all buffers.  One would be dirty for use
in emergencies.  A workbench menu item could verify things with the user, give
everything the goodby kiss, and then blank the screen and reset.  A lot of
people want a "official" shutdown, turning the machine off seems crude
and dangerous to them.  If they have a harddisk, I agree with them.

Also I'd define some keys to selectivly disable parts of the auto-config
process.  Press CTRL-F1 and restrict yourself to 256K of CHIP ram.  If
CTRL-F3 is held down then $C00000 memory is not sized, etc.  More thought
is needed as to the keystrokes, but the idea has merit.


>Second, if someone out there wants to write a 'reboot' command then DO NOT
>flush devices, flush HANDLERS!!! People love to roll those two together and
>interchange them in discussions. BUT devices and handlers are NOT one in the
>same.

Terminology... Terminology.  There are a number of things on the Amiga that
have multiple names and a number of things that share a common name.  YOU ARE
more correct in saying that the thing to flush is a HANDLER.
DOS was added so late to the Amiga that they fuddled up all the names. Type 
"assign" and look at what is below the heading "Devices".  Some other DOS
documentation I've read uses device and handler in the "wrong" manner, so
you can see where the problem stems from. 


>Third, how does one command AmigaDOG to make sure that it's ready for a reboot?
>ie close a file that is being written into so that upon reboot the disk
>validator doesn't get to come out for a romp?

What the validator does is unimportant.  Even if the file is left open, and
this bitmap is marked as pending... no sweat.
What is important is that what has already been written, but is sitting is
cache, is flushed.  Care needs to be taken that the DEVICE (exec device such
as trackdisk.device) has completed writing, turned off the drive, and is
generally ready for doomesday.  Catching it in the middle of a cache update
would be the absolute worst thing that can happen.
(See the V1.2 include file devices/trackdisk.i and search for the word
"doom" :-) (no, really, it's there! :-|)

If there was a better programmers definition of ALL the dos packets, there would
be a better chance that you could cause a HANDLER to do the right_stuff before
a forced powerdown.  ACTION_FLUSH is documented, but whats that ACTION_DIE
packet meant for anyway?  Even "nothing" would be reassuring to those of
use writing handlers.


>| If you want to injure my goldfish just make
>| sure I don't run up a vet bill.

Note to scott on scottdisk.device.  You mentioned bad documentation...
well what better documentation than source code, and that's in the Rom Kernal
Manual.  Or perhaphs your troubles related to trackdisk-type devices?? 
Otherwise the sample source works just fine with a little tweaking and
not much adding...

-----------------------------
|\ /|  . Ack! (NAK, EOT, SOH)
{o O} . 
( " )	bryce@cogsci.berkeley.EDU -or- ucbvax!cogsci!bryce
  U	"America has been discovered before, but it has always been hushed
	 up" -Oscar Wilde