Newton 2.x Q&A: The Newton Device Reboots When Turned On

The Newton Device Reboots When Turned On

One of the Newton 2.x OS Q&As
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This document was exported on 7/23/97.

The Newton Device Reboots When Turned On (8/9/93)

Q: My application has a really tight loop which can take more than a dozen seconds to finish. If the user turns off the Newton while my application is running, nothing happens at first, but finally the Newton turns off. The Newton device reboots when turned on. Why?

A: The reboot is happening because of a design goal. When the Newton OS learns the user wants to do a power off, the OS checks with the running application and says "Please get ready to shut down." If there is no response within about ten seconds the OS assumes that the process could be in an infinite loop. Since the user wants to turn off the Newton device, the OS terminates the application. When powering back up, there is no real clean state to return to, so the OS causes a reboot.

To work around this problem break up long processes so they can run in an viewIdleScript. In general, applications should release the CPU now and then so the OS can do clean up operations.