Re: OTP - menu fix

[grant hallman <unilogic@primus.ca>]

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At 05:32 AM 3/25/01 -0800, you wrote:
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>> That's exactly the kind of thing that's turned me into a grumpy old man ;)
>> The o/s knows perfectly well who's used a dll, it could add the counter
>> automagically on use - as well as allowing the prog to do it itself.
>
>That sounds all right, but what about decreasing the counter? How is the OS
>supposed to know when a program doesn't want/need the dll anymore? This
>would result in MS "protecting" all dll's so when one is installed, it'll
>never go away again!

I don't believe a simple counter is enuf. Each DLL needs a list of
user-apps, and when the list is empty, the last app out turns off the lights.

When a prog installs, it hasta register itself with all resources it needs,
or risk losing them. Of course this list would be compiler-generated and
kept in an Instal module, execute automagically unless app-disabled.

>This could all be avoided by providing a 'common installer' with the OS (as
>in Win2k) and have THAT keep track of the dll's usage count (which it
>probably does). The only problem is: all programs must use this installer.

Well, that's not so hard, a proper o/s could require anything writing to
exe or dll or bat etc. should come thru the installer front door. Make life
tougher on viruses too. The idea that an o/s turns a blind eye while some
hostile process overwrites an exe file is just absurd, especially when it's
so easy to trap.

grant

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