MathGroup Archive 2012

[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

Search the Archive

Re: Sending an interrupt to the frontend?

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg127346] Re: Sending an interrupt to the frontend?
  • From: Michael Weyrauch <michael.weyrauch at gmx.de>
  • Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2012 03:50:40 -0400 (EDT)
  • Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
  • Delivered-to: mathgroup-newout@smc.vnet.net
  • Delivered-to: mathgroup-newsend@smc.vnet.net
  • References: <jtj5ro$5ml$1@smc.vnet.net> <jttuv8$gtl$1@smc.vnet.net>

Ralph,

    I really would like to understand your critical remarks somewhat
better.

It is clear that one can easily and quickly run the frontend irresponsive.
However, in most cases I know, this is actually due to bad programming
(from Mathematica's point of view) rather than an instable product.

One typical reason is that a command returns symbolic results where the 
programmer actually expected only numerical stuff, and quickly things get completely out of hand.  But how should Mathematica know that all this was not intended?

It is the tremendous flexibility and the many possibilities which
sometims get into the way, and as a consequence the frontend can not
handle the output from the kernel any more.

I really do not understand where you expect Wolfram to get "its act 
together". My experience tells me: A good Mathematica program may run 
for days without any instability. But my stupitidy and/or lasy 
programming can run it against
the wall within seconds. Mathematica as such is definitely not unstable.
(of course, sometimes there are bugs as with any other major (and minor)
software).

Michael


Am 15.07.2012 10:28, schrieb Ralph Dratman:
> David,
>
> "Troublesome" puts the matter rather tactfully.
>
> Bluntly, there is no excuse for a major product to display such a
> level of instability in 2012.
>
> Since I personally like Mathematica so much, and because I use it
> constantly, I find the crashes to be both an embarrassment and a
> disappointment.
>
> I can only hope Wolfram Research will soon get its act together on
> this critically important issue.
>
> Ralph
>
>
> On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 1:28 AM, David Bailey <dave at removedbailey.co.uk> wrote:
>> On 12/07/2012 10:00, Yves Klett wrote:
>>> In earlier incarnations, the kernel would show up as a separate entry in
>>> the taskbar (on Win XP, that was), which made it very convenient to
>>> kill. I kind of miss that behaviour (when things go wrong repeatedly).
>>
>> I wrote a C program that executes the command
>>
>> c:\windows\System32\taskkill.exe /im MathKernel.exe /t /f
>>
>> This runs in the background all the time, and responds to a hot key!
>>
>> The fact that I took time to set this up, probably reflects just how
>> troublesome kernel hangs can be!
>>
>> Perhaps at the very least Mathematica could spawn a program of this type.
>>
>> David Bailey
>> http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk
>>
>>
>




  • Prev by Date: Re: Plotting: how does one reverse the time axis tick
  • Next by Date: Re: switching axes in Plot?
  • Previous by thread: Re: Sending an interrupt to the frontend?
  • Next by thread: Re: Sending an interrupt to the frontend?