Re: terminate applications

[Dmitry A. Kazakov <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>]

On Thu, 24 Jul 2003 01:47:36 GMT, Hyman Rosen <hyrosen@mail.com>
wrote:

>Randy Brukardt wrote:
>> Finalization is the key to building maintainable abstractions, and we simply
>> cannot allow cases in which that finalization does not happen.
>
>But that's not really under your control. In Windows or UNIX, there are
>ways to immediately kill a program from the outside, regardless of what
>the program would prefer.

[Yes, that small button, called "Reset" on the front panel!]

If you don't believe Randy, then here is a quote from MSDN regarding
TerminateProcess:

[QUOTE START]
... The TerminateProcess function is used to unconditionally cause a
process to exit. Use it only in extreme circumstances. The state of
global data maintained by dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) may be
compromised if TerminateProcess is used rather than ExitProcess.
...
DLLs attached to the process are not notified that the process is
terminating.

Terminating a process does not generate notifications for WH_CBT hook
procedures.
[QUOTE END]

Read the above carefully, and you will understand, why one should
never ever do such a thing under Windows.

> And these services are available to a program
>that wishes to invoke them, even on itself. So you don't gain anything
>by making believe that such a thing does not exist, and you get in the
>way of the programmer who has a perfectly good reason for wanting to do
>it.

Probably the programmer has not done his homework. In a properly
designed system there is no need in things like that. Even less Ada
standard should encourage them.

---
Regards,
Dmitry Kazakov
www.dmitry-kazakov.de