[Openmcl-devel] relaunching CCL IDE on Windows problems

[Alexander Repenning]

We have some problems with people trying to use CCL-based Win32 apps which can be traced back to CCL related processes hanging around. This may be the result of CCL improperly terminating in case of a crash. Here is one way to reproduce a similar situation:

On Windows XP

- build CCL IDE app by requiring wit Cocoa and saving app (With 1.8-dev  (WindowsX8632))
- launch CCL IDE:
	- listener pops up (good)
	- WaltConsole.exe and wx86cl.exe processes in Windows Task Manager (no problem so far)
- assume CCL IDE did crash and left one of both processes alive
- launch CCL IDE again 
	- NO listener will pop up (bad)
	- two more WaltConsole.exe and wx86cl.exe processes in Windows Task Manager
- repeat last step as many times as you want: each one will add processes

This is bad because these new processes have no interface: you will not get a Listener nor get to see that WaltConsole. Bottom line: if your CCL based app did crash and left some process you will not be able to relaunch your app. Some options:

1) instruct users to scan windows task manger for WaltConsole.exe and wx86cl.exe processe and make the end these processes. Not a great idea.
2) have users reboot the machine to purge rogue processes. Not a great idea
3) have CCL check for rogue WaltConsole.exe and wx86cl.exe processes at launch an kill them preemptively (perhaps controlled by some mode)
4) ????


Option 3 sounds actually pretty compelling given that at least so far there is no good reason to run multiple versions of CCL on the same machine. But how would we kill these processes and making sure we are not actually killing ourselves? Also, are there any alternative ideas how to avoid this issue?

thanks, Alex



	






Prof. Alexander Repenning

University of Colorado
Computer Science Department
Boulder, CO 80309-430

vCard: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~ralex/AlexanderRepenning.vcf


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