Re: Fatal error (11). Emacs/ Linux hosed my very long document.

[Mike Cox]

David Kastrup wrote:

> Mike Cox <mikecoxlinux@yahoo.com> writes:
> 
>> David Kastrup wrote:
>>
>>> "wlcna" <wlcna@nospam.com> writes:
>>> 
>>>> "Mike Cox" <mikecoxlinux@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>>>> 3d6111f1.0409161437.30ef8b7d@posting.google.com">news:3d6111f1.0409161437.30ef8b7d@posting.google.com...
>>>>>I recently switched to xemacs as my default word processor so I could
>>>>> do formatting in TEX for a very long document.  Most recently I've
>>>> [...]
>>>>
>>>> I don't really care about this discussion because I don't like/can't
>>>> stand emacs (I use vi and vim) and also initially thought the o.p. was
>>>> a complete liar and troll, but having looked at his other posts and his
>>>> posting
>>>> history, I no longer believe this and moreover...  I NOW THINK this guy
>>>> has
>>>> a point:  xemacs is a pile of crap if this guy was editing for five
>>>> hours and it crashed out of nowhere on him.
>>>>
>>>> I think xemacs has a problem here because I've NEVER ONCE
>>>> experienced a crash with vim, whether it be using it from the
>>>> command line or gui.  Not once, and it's the only editor I've been
>>>> using for years, and I don't use it in any plain, stripped down
>>>> versions, but pretty well feature-maxed versions, under multiple
>>>> operating systems and windowing environments.  This guy was editing
>>>> for five hours and he gets a crash "out of nowhere."
>>
>> I'll admit that I don't know too much about emacs.  I was pressing some
>> random keys in the emacs window and all of a sudden it just collapsed and
>> core dumped.
> 
> Pressing random keys while writing a 100 page document in 5 hours.
> There are probably few other ways of getting this sort of output in
> this time rather than pressing random keys.

I was pressing random keys trying to figure out how to save my document.  I
was looking through the emacs help menu on how to do it (enduring a lot of
computer beeping).  That's when it crashed.  Emacs is a nightmare to
navigate.  Where is the "Save As" button on this thing??? 

 The reason I didn't even save in the first place was because emacs never
asked me to create a new document when I started it up.  It just dumped me
in some "buffer".  In VIM you have to specify a file when you open a
document.  Makes sense, and it works unlike emacs.

> 
>> And no there was NO autosave file.  And I was using a vanilla xemacs
>> version that comes standard with SuSE 8.2
>>
>>> Well, according to "this guy", he had been writing a review, and
>>> had written 100 pages at the time of the crash.  A 100 page review,
>>> and written at a speed of 20 pages per hour.
>>
>> With a lot of screen shots and diagrams that I had already created.
> 
> In TeX.  And you include all those screen shots and diagrams in your
> source.  And know that the output will be 100 pages.  Which is pretty
> hard to estimate unless you actually run TeX on the file.  Which is
> pretty hard to do without saving the file first.  And you write a
> review that is supposed to be published on the Web with TeX.


Well, first off, I don't know how to use TeX.  I was going to do the format
after I had everything written out. I wanted everything typed just in case
I couldn't figure out how to use TeX. I had my screenshots done already and
they take about 2 pages each.

So my scratch buffer was quite full of text, I'm not sure if it was 100
pages, but it sure seemed like it.

> 
> Sorry, but your whole story is utter hogwash.  I won't debate that it
> is possible under circumstances to get Emacs or XEmacs to crash, in
> particular developer versions.  And I won't rule out the possibility
> that you encountered such a possibility.
> 
> But the story you weaved around that (_if_ it happened) is complete
> and utter hogwash.

Of course it happened.  How else would I even be able to post the core dump
file???
> 
>> There is a GNUS bug in xEMACS AND FSF Emacs.  I'll bet you can even
>> reproduce it.  Get a dialup connection to the internet.  Start up gnus.
>> Read your favorite groups, and if your dailup connection disconnects
>> while
>> you are downloading an article, GNUS will completely FREEZE UP!!!!  I had
>> to stop using GNUS because of that reason and am now using knode.
> 
> One presses C-g.  That's it.  You then use ^ in the Group buffer to go
> to the server buffer and close the connection to the server with C.
> You leave the server buffer with q, and then you just continue working
> once the connection is up again.

Try it.  Didn't work for me.

>> It happens on xemacs and fsf emacs.  Go try it.  Find the regular
>> 8.2 SuSE CDs and install and do it.  Emacs will crash on you too if
>> you do the things I described.
> 
> It does not crash in that circumstance.  It simply freezes for a long
> time unless you interrupt it with C-g.
>

Try again.  I tried all the key combinations from the emacs tutorial, C-g
included.  I tried this on both xemacs and fsf emacs, both hung.  You can
try it too.  Get SuSE 8.2 and do it using both xemacs or fsf emacs.

>>> Nice piece of flame-bait here.  Thankfully, you are not
>>> representative for the typical vim user.
>>> 
>>
>> I have used vim and it too has NEVER crashed on me yet.
> 
> While reading news with it?  Well, vim has also NEVER crashed on me
> when I used it as a newsreader, too.
> 

Have you heard of slrn???  When you write a message it uses VIM.