Scott Gavin wrote...
 
Big nice snippet about use of message files, etc...
 
I agree!!!!!!!!!
 
Message files and ports/pipes are not the same thing.
 
4-5 years ago HP did a study with several customers on their future
use of message files.
They wondered why we would not change our code to use the AIF Port
features - which was/is in native mode.
Comparisons of AIF Ports, msg files, etc, made it evident
that many apps could only use msg files. I dare say that study resulted
in the MSG file subsystem getting ported on MPE 5.0.
 
There is a place for message files -- one of them being they can have
valid data whether or not a reader and/or writer is accessing them.
 
In the early (bleeding edge) days (1984ish), we experienced several (many?)
occurrences
with damaged MSG files after a crash. The solution was to fix the system
so that it did not crash anymore.
 
I have not heard of our app having damaged MSG files for more than
100s msg files * 4 apps * 6 systems * 5 years.
 
The idea of a flag to indicate "replace the msg file" is a novel idea,
however, if implemented, it would have to be user selectable. Some of
our msg files this would be OK. For others it would mean the user
(analyst) would need to purge the message file AND PERFORM A DATA
RESYNCH routine before the app resumed it's merry way.
 
Cheers.
Weather calls for an evening ride ...
 
Elbert