DAB>   Well, I have used DosEnterCritSec when I had to 
 DAB> call a time-critical
 DAB> communications routine in order to prevent timeouts 
 DAB> (Communicating with weird PLC's).
 DAB>   I needed to be sure that when I went into that 
 DAB> routine, everything else
 DAB> stopped until it was completed.  It WAS designed to 
 DAB> be as quick as possible.
 DAB>   I don't think I'm being lazy... I just wanted to 
 DAB> point out that I think
 DAB> that there are legitimate uses for DosEnterCritSec.


 PF> I don't think that is a legitimate use,  because it is 
 PF> working around a design flaw in the program (you have 
 PF> free-running polling loops in the other threads).

I might want to point out that this particular PLC and the method of
communication requires approximately 2ms accuracy (on a serial port, for
cryin' out loud!), otherwise the network may be compromised.  You pass a
token around at 9600 baud, but have to release the token within about 2ms
if you aren't going to do anything with it.

It's really a pathetic protocol, IMO.  We were about to support it, but
decided that it wasn't worth the problems.  (Mind you, we're under NT at
work)


--- Maximus/2 3.01