Michael Gleason wrote in a message to Mark Kimes:

> Why would you want to reboot the operating system to restart one program?
> This sounds a bit like killing a fly with a machine gun.  :-)

 MG> Since I know you are well versed in the BBS Biz you know
 MG> that some BBS software goes brain dead and refuses to answer
 MG> the phone (for one reason or another) but still act as
 MG> though they are working but can not talk to the modem any
 MG> longer. That would make it necessary to either kill the BBS
 MG> process and restart it OR shutdown the system and reboot it.
 MG> Since most people can not figure out how to detect a BBS
 MG> lockup, then shut it down and restart it (Me included), it
 MG> is easier to shut the system down.... I apologize if I am
 MG> telling you something that you already know but, there is a
 MG> BIG need for an OS/2 utility that could monitor the BBS and
 MG> reset automatically it if it hangs. Michael Gleason
 MG> 1:135/813 FidoNet

It is ridiculous to reboot the whole OS/2 machine for a BBS hang.  The hard
part is detecting the BBS hang, not killing the BBS program and restarting
it once the hang is detected.  I discussed ways to detect the hang in a
prior message, but it is not appropriate to reboot the whole machine. 
Consider as a simple case what would happen to a multi-line BBS running
under OS/2, where each line was served by a separate BBS instance as a DOS
program.  Because one line hung, rebooting the machine would force off all
other users with no warning, even right in the middle of downloads, and
would quickly gain the BBS a reputation for gross unreliability.
 
-- Mike


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