On Mon, 8 Apr 2024, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
I just can't believe none of he developers noticed or maybe that
was the point where they all gave up. :-)
Presumably, it worked on the machine that they were using.
Not everybody tests everything on all possible configurations.
SOME companies don't test anything on any configuration other than what
they are using.
For example, at Microsoft, if a programmer has a hardware problem, they
immediately replace the machine. Good working conditions. BUT, that
means that they have substantially less experience than we do with
problematic machines.
Hence, disasters, such as SMARTDRV originally defaulting to having write
cacheing ON, which gives data loss (blamed on other components!) EVERY
time there is an unrecovered disk error, OR the user turns off the machine
(normal practice for most users in the 1980s) before all the buffers are
flushed.
Proper testing would have found that before release.
Beta testers of Windows 3.11 who reported that problem were told, "You
have a HARDWARE problem. That's not our responsibility." Those who
suggested that the OS at least had a responsibility of reporting and
making graceful exit in such conditions were dropped from the Beta program
for all future products.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
