At 12:57 PM -0800 3/8/99, Kenneth Albanowski wrote:
>Hmm... "Conflict Catcher(tm) for PalmOS(tm)"... Nah, it'd never sell.
...actually, we've talked about various ways to figure out which app is
running so the user can be notified. In this case, it's fairly easy since
the app's creator code has just been used.
One marginally interesting problem we face as hacks and callbacks become
more prevalent is that customer support gets calls about 3rd party
software. If we had some relatively easy way to figure out which app was
running (down to the level of a hack that's patched out an OS trap), we'd
find it much easier to 1) figure out the problem, and 2) have the user
direct their questions to someone who can actually help.
One problem with simple solutions like a low memory global that tracks the
app creator is that there are sub-calls and hacks, so you end up either
slowing down the OS or using a lot of space.
At the opposite end, a solution which tries to figure out the app from the
program counter or call stack breaks down when the crash has side effects
in OS systems like the data manager or memory manager.
So while conflict catcher may be overkill for now, "who's running" is an
interesting problem, and might be fun to work on.
--Bob
