Recovery is only as good as the language framework allows it to be. Compilers insulate you from the data and the hardware, and reduce your level of control over how errors are handled.
But that's part of what you're buying by using a compiler in the first place: Not to have to worry about all those "little details". Assembler programs have access to interrupt exits that allow recovery routines to get control. An infinitely smart programmer could conceivably write enough code to fix or recover from ANY failure, but how many of THOSE are there? And who writes in assembler anymore anyway? > -----Original Message----- > From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of > David Boyes > Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2003 2:52 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [LINUX-390] Memory access faults. > > > > The problem with laying this at the feet of the application > > programmer is that they are not perfect, and when the program > > fails it actually the end user that suffers. > > Unfortunately, that's about the only place it *can* go. Users > can't (or > shouldn't be able to) change the code on the fly, or, if they > can, they're > better than the developer -- or at least, a lot more bored > and have way too > much free time. > > Methinks that it mostly results from not probing your > environment at startup > to determine what the limitations are, and then doing more > rigorous checking > that you don't violate those limits during operation. Way too many > programmers assume infinite resources and don't cope with > failure to acquire > same. > > While we're airing pet peeves: why do people assume that changing > programming languages will somehow fix this problem? It's > just as possible > to write rotten Java as rotten C or Fortran (in fact, it's > possible to write > bad Fortran in *any* programming language...8-)), and IDE's > and all the > other stuff doesn't fix bad programming practices any more > than a fancy > grease gun fixes seized bearings. It helps, but fused is still fused. > > (yes, it's been Tuesday all over. grump.) > > -- db >
