Bob Arning <arning at charm.net> wrote:

> >Can anybody think of a reason we can't just add this to SystemDictionary's
> >StartUpList?
> 
> David,
> 
> The main reason is that Socket class>>initializeNetwork may (must?) imply some actual network activity. This could be disturbing for folks with dial-up connections. Note this excerpt from the comment in  NetNameResolver class>>primInitializeNetwork:
> 
> "... 
> Since mobile computers may not always be connected to a network, this method should NOT be called automatically at startup time; rather, it should be called when first starting a networking application. 
> ..."


Agreed.  On the other hand, why don't we just have the VM's deal with
this internally?  They could  put initializeNetwork() at the top of each
primitive, instead of just failing.  It's at least as easy to do
initializeNetwork(), as it is to do "if(!initialized) FAIL()".


Lex