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leonard6.txt
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1990-09-19
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6KB
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141 lines
*---------------------------------------------------------------------*
| |
| Leonard6, the Crash Handler |
| by John Eidsvoog |
| Copyright 1990 John Eidsvoog |
| Release date: September 18, 1990 |
| |
| This software and the accompanying documentation are freeware and |
| may be distributed freely as long as it remains intact, complete, |
| and unaltered. It may not be sold or included with any commercial |
| package without the written consent of the author. |
| |
*---------------------------------------------------------------------*
THE INSPIRATION BEHIND LEONARD6
-------------------------------
An official at Atari (who shall remain nameless) has joked publicly that
Atari plans to have a head with little ones and zeros appear whenever a
program crashes on the TT. The more we thought about it, the more we
realized that it might actually be a good advertising gimmick, not only
on the TT but also on the ST.
To show that we at CodeHead Software have a sense of humor, I decided to
create a program that would replace the usual Atari "bombs" with little
heads with ones and zeros in them. Since this program works on all STs
_and_ the TT, it further shows that we do indeed know how to make our
software TT-compatible.
The little head-shaped bomb replacements have been nicknamed leonards
after the movie "Leonard - Part VI", which was quite a bomb itself. Any
similarities between the name or images used in Leonard6 and any real or
imaginary figures or persons are purely coincidental. This package was
also created with a definite tongue planted in a rather large cheek.
HOW TO SET IT UP
----------------
Leonard6 is a resident program. It can be installed from the desktop or
from your AUTO folder. You can install it from the desktop (or HotWire)
by simply running the program, at which time the installation message
will quickly flash on the screen and return you to the desktop (or
HotWire).
If you want to permanently add Leonard6 to your normal setup, simply
copy it into your AUTO folder. It will then be installed every time you
boot up from that disk. A brief message will appearing showing you that
it is installed.
If you use a resident debugger such as TEMPLMON.PRG or AMONST.PRG, you
should install LEONARD6.PRG so that it runs after that debugger in your
AUTO folder. That way every time a system error occurs, the appropriate
number of leonards will appear and your debugger will be invoked.
You'll be able to view the leonards by flipping to your view screen (F2
in TempleMon, or 'V' in AmonST).
HOW IT WORKS
------------
Leonard6 installs itself in the first 8 exception vectors, which
normally point to the system's bomb-handler routine. It replaces the
routine which shows bombs on the screen for those vectors. The vectors
handled by Leonard6 and the respective number of leonards that will
appear are:
2 - Bus error
3 - Address error
4 - Illegal instruction
6 - Chk instruction
7 - Trapv instruction
8 - Privilege violation
9 - Trace mode
These are the most frequent types of system errors. Exceptions with
larger numbers will be handled by the normal system bomb-handler
routine.
If you have a resident debugger, Leonard6 will fall through to the
debugger routines, otherwise it will handle errors the same as the
operating system does by terminating the current program (with a Pterm).
CRASHER.PRG
-----------
CRASHER.PRG is a program which simulates an illegal instruction error
with Leonard6 installed so that you don't have to install Leonard6 and
wait for a system error to occur. This will help you decide if you want
to install Leonard6 in your system or not. CRASHER.PRG will not harm
your system or create any problems with resident programs or
accessories. It will simply display four leonards and wait for you to
press a key to terminate the program.
POINTS TO NOTE
--------------
1. Due to the larger size of the leonards compared to the size of a
bomb image, on a color monitor you will only see the first 6 leonards.
Up to nine leonards are supported on a monochrome monitor.
2. A divide-by-zero exception is ignored and will be immediately
processed by an 'rte' instruction. This is useful because some programs
have divide-by-zero errors which TOS will ignore but TEMPLMON will
intercept. Since this can be quite irritating, Leonard6 will pass you
directly back to the program without displaying any errors. If you want
to test your programs for divide-by-zero errors, you should remove
Leonard6.
COPYRIGHT STUFF
---------------
LEONARD6.PRG, CRASHER.PRG, and this document are Copyright 1990 John
Eidsvoog. They are freeware and may be distributed freely as long as
they are unaltered and not included with any commercial products without
the written consent of the author.
Please note that Leonard6 is not a CodeHead Software product. All
CodeHead Software products are commercial programs which must be
purchased through normal commercial channels.
Neither this document file (LEONARD6.TXT) nor the program files
(LEONARD6.PRG and CRASHER.PRG) may be altered in any way. Copies of
these files may not be sold, and this document may not be reprinted,
without the express written permission of John Eidsvoog.
I've tried to make Leonard6 as bug-free as possible. Nevertheless, I
cannot be responsible for any damages which may occur as a result of the
use (or misuse) of Leonard6.