Stan Writes:
> Mike writes:
> > Besides, MPE doesn't provide a supported interface for freezing pages into
> > memory.
>
> It does...the documented FVA (and related) Debug/iX command.
 
No, that's a 'documented' interface.  It still requires Privileged Mode to
use, and in this sort of use of a PM interface you are always on your own
when it comes to who is responsible if it does not work the way you want it
to.
 
If someone FVAs a program into memory and then the system performance is bad,
or the Memory Manager doesn't work well any more, or the system crashes when
someone invokes some operaation on the program file that never thought of the
possibility that the program might be frozen, and then calls the Response
Center to complain about it, I would expect them to be rightfully laughed
off the face of the earth (actually I'm sure the RC would be delighted to
politely submit an SR for you.  They probably wouldn't get around to laughing
at you until lunch :-)
 
Just because it is 'documented' doesn't mean that all possible uses (or even
*any* possible use of it) are 'supported'.  This is especially true of the
MPE/iX System Debugger, which was designed more for the original developers
of MPE/XL than for end user customers.  Even suggesting that 'documented'
means 'supported' in the case if DEBUG commands is very dangerous.  How
would you feel if, in the next release of MPE/iX, HP removed all the DEBUG
commands that they decided they could not fully support, or that were not
'needed' by end users?  How would the world be different today if this had
been done to DEBUG before the first release of XL? Personally, I don't
think that MPE/XL would have been nearly as successful as it has been
without the System Debugger facility as it is.
 
G.