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RE: I had to say it because I was afraid no one else would
Subject:RE: I had to say it because I was afraid no one else would From:"Leonard C. Porrello" <Leonard -dot- Porrello -at- SoleraTec -dot- com> To:"John Posada" <jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com> Date:Thu, 5 Feb 2009 08:33:27 -0800
Nothing to get over. I actually enjoy the image that "graceful" evokes. I'm a big fan of metaphor.
But tell me, is it just the ballet that you are opposed to, John, or would you find a reference to another genera of dancing equally upsetting? What about ice skating? Would that work better for you? How about gymnastics?
I understand the distinction that you are speaking of, and I can't get over how frequently you assume that the usage you are accustomed to must apply to everything everyone on this list is writing.
While I respect that your use of "normal" and "graceful" works in your world, in my world (in which the sky is blue--same as yours, yes?), we support three types of shutdowns: Normal, Extended, and Emergency.
Normal: A Normal shutdown stops current client activity after the currently running transaction is complete. It completes all database transactions and performs any cleanup activity that may be required, but it does not remove media from the drive. A vault restarted after a normal shutdown should not report errors. This used to be called a "Graceful" shutdown until we realized that since this is what all well designed software should normally do, calling it "graceful," as if it were something exceptional, was not appropriate.
Extended: Extended shutdown is the best way to shutdown a vault if it is going to be taken off line for an extended period of time. With this method, <%PRODUCT%> waits until currently running client processes are finished before closing connections to clients. <%PRODUCT%> then completes all database transactions, removes media from drives, and performs any required cleanup activity. An Extended shutdown will be significantly more time consuming than a Normal shutdown.
Emergency: The upshot of Emergency shutdown will be exactly as if you remove power from the host computer. A vault restarted after an emergency shutdown may report connection timeouts, incomplete database translations, and other items.
Leonard
-----Original Message-----
From: John Posada [mailto:jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 8:02 AM
To: Leonard C. Porrello
Cc: List, Techwriter
Subject: Re: I had to say it because I was afraid no one else would
> Industry standard yes, but it nevertheless evokes the image of a
> ballerina flittering around a computer, gracefully pressing buttons and
> keys between pirouettes, plies, and arabesques.
Get over it
> For reasons you may be able to guess, we've recently changed "Graceful
> shutdown" to "Normal shutdown."
You know that it is two different meanings, right?
Normal is where you intiate a process to shut it down.
Graceful is where the application may sense an event, but before it
shuts down on its own, it clears the queues, writes a description of
the event to the log, maybe sends out an email, and otherwise, closes
down according to predefined rules.
Clicking "Start -> Turn Off Computer" is not a graceful shutdown.
--
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
NYMetro STC President
Looking for the next gig.
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