From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,85034d1ac78a66eb X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-03-27 14:34:57 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.airnews.net!cabal11.airnews.net!cabal1.airnews.net!news-f.iadfw.net!usenet From: "John R. Strohm" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada Operating System Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 12:22:54 -0800 Organization: Airnews.net! at Internet America Message-ID: <4BC3E687EC8D1536.D5BD5FBAD2827898.AA0458DED82D27A4@lp.airnews.net> X-Orig-Message-ID: References: X-A-Notice: References line has been trimmed due to 512 byte limitation Abuse-Reports-To: abuse at airmail.net to report improper postings NNTP-Proxy-Relay: library1-aux.airnews.net NNTP-Posting-Time: Wed Mar 27 16:33:28 2002 NNTP-Posting-Host: !Zct?1k-VSh>G)Q (Encoded at Airnews!) X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:21732 Date: 2002-03-27T12:22:54-08:00 List-Id: "David Starner" wrote in message news:a76lbh$8i42@news.cis.okstate.edu... > On Sun, 17 Mar 2002 19:25:09 -0600, James Ross wrote: > > Sure, sounds like bizarre things to do -- but > > the OS should not allow it regardless what reason I might have for > > doing it. > > I _hate_ when gratitious restrictions stop me from doing what I need to > do. When the user really, really wants to shoot themselves in the foot, > the system's job is to provide the gun. (Note that Ada follows this rule > - machine insertions, unchecked deallocation, unchecked conversions.) The simplest answer, which is generally unpopular with the C crowd, is that, to a first approximation, 99.997% of the time, the user does NOT want to shoot himself in the foot, and reasonably expects the system to KEEP him from shooting himself in the foot. The appropriate answer is to provide mechanisms that will catch him, 99,997 times out of 100,000. At the same time, you provide an override mechanism, preferably about three to five levels deep in "Are you sure?"-equivalents, to WARN him that he is about to lose toes and blood and ruin his shoes. The C crowd seems to believe that, because you need this mechanism 3 times out of 100,000 tries, it must be easily and immediately available 100% of the time, and the user is required to look out for himself the other 99,997 times. I have a problem with this approach. > What if I'm about to rearrange some partitions, so I need to move some > data onto the only stable partition, which happens to be /usr/lib? I guess the obvious question has something to do with why your system has partitions that require periodic manual rearrangement. Remember, there is NO excuse for poor design.