MIKE RUSKAI wrote in a message to LEONARD ERICKSON:

 MR> Programs that check free space do so for the human user's 
 MR> utility (e.g. which drive to install something on).

Oh?  If we were talking about stuff that gave you a list of drives with the
available space on each,  I would agree with you,  but...

 MR> The write attempt itself is where the program learns whether or 
 MR> not there's any space left, provided it checks the success of 
 MR> the operation (which all competent programmers make sure of).

 MR> Even if the program doesn't check, nothing bad can happen. The 
 MR> program will inevitably end up using an OS facility to do the 
 MR> writing, which will simply fail if there's no space available 
 MR> to write to.

 MR> The worst case is that the programs which don't check the 
 MR> success of their write operations break.

Either locking up or sitting there spinning their wheels until they're "done". 
But no,  that's not the worst case.  The worst case is when a program "checks" 
the free space,  doing so erroneously,  and refuses to proceed further when
there's sure as hell enough room for the install to proceed,  only it's
brain-dead programming doesn't let it think there is.  Then you're stuck, 
until you resort to some measures outside of the program in question to "fool" 
it into thinking it has enough room.

 MR> ... Hello, I'd like an argument please.

There ya go...

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