On Sun, 3 Dec 2006, Michael Cashwell wrote:
> I have a two-line program which will crash any Mac OS X system.
Assuming that's userland code please report it at <http://
www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/>.
It's not only been reported to Apple, it's been slashdotted! ;-)
But in all fairness, these things happen. Every kernel every written has
had a similar embarassment with some obscure system call. Apple will fix
it sooner or later.
I've found some real doozies in the past 36 or years. What's amazing is
not the discovery, but rather than in so many cases the good guys find the
problem first.
Every Apple engineer I know
consistently says that NOTHING in userland should be able to take
down the kernel and this whole machine. The system should limit
userland misdeeds to that process.
That is the goal state for every kernel developer. It is not at all
unique to Mac OS X. [We're talking kernels, not glorified program loaders
such as OS/360, OS/8, CP/M, Apple DOS, MS-DOS, pre-OSX Mac OS, etc.]
What's more, the principle of limiting userland misdeeds to the process
doing the misdeed was very much the mindset of the developers of the old
MULTICS, TENEX, TOPS-20, etc. mainframe systems prior to the personal
computer revolution.
I'd prefer an app that aborts to one that
forges forth and corrupts my data files.
My feelings exactly!
-- Mark --
http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
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