[Info-vax] Unexpected error using ZIP for OpenVMS

[glen herrmannsfeldt]

AEF <spamsink2001 at yahoo.com> wrote:

(snip)
> OK, so users errors are expected, but hardware errors and programmer
> errors aren't.

On an IBM S/370 some years ago I had a program abend due to a
machine check exception.  That is, a hardware error that the machine
knew about, and then ended my program.

> OK, so if you don't expect hardware errors, why are there monitoring
> programs for such things? Are these monitoring programs also
> unexpected? Don't hardware errors produce error messages? Were the
> people who wrote these error messages not expecting them? If not, why
> did they write them?

More rare now, but not so many years ago the hardware was
less reliable.  Having the hardware check itself gave you
more confidence in the results.

> OK, so if you don't expect programming errors (What?!), why are bug
> fixes? Are bug fixes unexpected, too? Are debuggers also unexpected?

-- glen