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{subhead}Hints & Tips{def}{p}
Article by Mark Tierno
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Avoiding crashes.{pp}
While in the PC world most crashes come from the OS itself, in our
world most of them come from buggy apps and beta software... and let's
admit it, most of our stuff is either beta or with bugs that will
never be fixed because the program's been discontinued.  So, with that
in mind, here's a few tips to lessen your chance of a crash.{pp}
First off, if you haven't gotten one of those hacks that intercepts a
program crash to allow you to remove it without harm o others then GET
it.  I personally use the "NOGURU" option in MCP.  THis will catch all
the less serious problems.{pp}
Some programs when they crash just bypass all the guru stuff and go
straight to reset, in essence becoming a 300K reset program, others
work in combination.  Take Wordworth as an example (the DTP I use); it
seems to have a memory leak that leaves quite the mess after the
program ois quit.  So much so in version 7 that I had to go back to
using version 6 or risk a lesser Guru on startup and a near reset on
quitting.  Version 6 is still messy but only if the next thing you use
happens to be buggy internet software...{pp}
Ah!  Then you've used Voyager.  Until they (finally, if ever) finish
their rewrite, Voyager will crash on certaon web pages and on pages
with too buggy java scripts, and the only sort of crash Voyager seems
to know is a reset.  If you nstart up Voyager after haivng
just used Wordworth then it IS only a matter of how long before you
have a crash.{pp}
{Solutions?  Well, after a Wordworth session (or anyother major DTP
effort for that matter), you could try an avail FLUSH but if you
really want to be safe then just give the three-fingered salute before
starting up for internet.  Also, set your browser cache to either RAM:
or a ZIP disk.  For that matter, any program that uses temp
directories (and there's a jpeg datatype that does so) should have
such pointed to RAM:.  That wy when you do crash you won't be spending
the next 5-10 minutes watching your harddrive re-validate itself.{pp}
When you get any new software, especially major apps, run it first and
put it through it's paces to make sure it's not going to easily crash
or under what sort of circumstances it will.  If it does crash too
easily or does really weird things with your display then the new app
ain't worth it.  Especially test DTP software, paint programs, and any
sort of graphical or anmated viewer (there's one of these latter that
seems to disable screen redraw on all screens, making for quite the
mess).{pp}
Sound event collisions used to be a guarrenteed reset until AHI made
that nearly impossible.  If you don't have AHI installed then get off
your rear and DO it.{pp}
Either focus all your efforts on killing aliens in that
high-end graphically intensive game or keep your attention on that
productivity app you had going.  Running one of those high-end 3-D
games with major DTP apps is just an invitation.{pp}
FInally, there is still one unavoidable screen lock up event and tht
is simultaneous input.  If you go to the upper right corner of the
screen to flip to the next screen at the sam time as a requeseter
comes up somewhere else- and if you have one of those hacks that
brings that other screen to front that has the new requester-,
you WILL freeze up.  Obviously this only
happens when you have a bunch of screens up which for me is during
Internet time.  If you know you'll be having some requester about to
pop up from the 4r or 5 apps downloading stuff or connecting to
things then just be patient, sit back and wait for the requesters to
stop flipping the screens about.{pp}
Of course, you can always tell some of the authors of the buggy
software when, where, and why their apps crash.
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