> > >       As for the problem of what to do when timeouts are reached... what's
> > > wrong with just putting something in the human interface of the
> > > application which lets the human stop the operation in progress?
> > 
> > Nothing. Except, in a server environment, there won't be a human to press
> > that button.

> Please, please don't put in user interface in the lower level code!
[snipped] from various people, IDs lost in history....

Note that the original quote pointed out that there is nothing to stop
the APPLICATION having some human interface for timeouts etc. This is
quite different to saying the low level code should poopup a dialogue.

Raising an exception that other code will catch and translate to a
dialogue on some operator's machine a gazillion miles away is one
reasonable solution. Handling the exception via an AI assistant (or even
a grad student) would be ok.

tim

-- 
Tim Rowledge, tim at sumeru.stanford.edu, http://sumeru.stanford.edu/tim
Programming Department:  Mistakes made while you wait.