Automatic Termination in Lion

So I messed up my entire installation of MAMP by trying to install mod_wsgi, with apache refusing to start as I tried to undo the changes I’d made. So I could think of nothing else, but get rid of MAMP and start afresh. So I deleted my MAMP folder and then emptied the trash. I then suddenly realized that not only did I remove MAMP but also all the CSS from the previous day sitting inside the htdocs folder.

So while closing all the applications, TextMate prompted me to save my stuff. I realized that I still had all the changes open there, and so I quickly saved them to a new folder and saved myself from sobbing.

—

This is something that happened before I switched to Lion. If I had Lion at that time, then Automatic Termination may have actually killed TextMate as a penalty for not giving it attention in the threshold period after which the feature activates. Even Lion-ready applications that both save and restore states would fail to work properly because the files they are supposed to bring back in view no longer exist. I had deleted those files. I guess the only way I could have got that stuff back then while using Lion was if the entire state of the application was saved to disk. I can already see that this may seem impossible for an application like Photoshop which already runs with so much overhead.

Why do we need Automatic Termination, again? Apple killing legacy support is great as it motivates people to pull their socks and improve software; but the sort of constraints it puts may be very limited thus allowing old software to run reasonably well for most setups and only a few odd cases seeing this kind of failure. If few is too few, then we might be conveniently attributing the cause of failure to human error.

Update:
@GnrlMxms points out that Automatic Termination and Sudden Termination are features that developers need to enable explicitly. My concern was for applications that do opt-in to use them. With applications being distributed through the App Store, they wont be few in number.

Movies I Watched (Aug - Sep 2011)

Mausam ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the movie. It reminds you of how you felt when you watched Drona, if you watched it.

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
There wasn’t a moment where I was bored. Some real fun scenes, and even when things became serious where you’d have expected to see some rona-dhona there’s a comic twist that sustains the mood.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Abhay Deol and Farhan Akhtar were good. The movie was very so-so. Maybe because of Hrithik Roshan.

Dev.D ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
This movie was good. The music was even better. Respect to Abhay Deol and Amit Trivedi. For once that Kalki female didn’t seem like an eye sore.

Delhi Belly ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
I watched it in Hindi. It was dubbed but after a few minutes, I thought the dubbing was pretty good. I enjoyed the movie in Hindi with all the evergreen Delhi slang and funny moments throughout.

Bridesmaids ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
I respect the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer because movies certified fresh are generally pretty good. This one was no exception. Kinda like very tame version of The Hangover.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
What an unusual movie. Seemed like it was straight out of the amazing Toonami section we used to get to see on Cartoon Network as kids. Very interesting. Not something anyone other than our age-group would like.

Fast Five ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Never seen any of the other movies in the Fast and the Furious series, but this definitely had some of the kind of action I like. When you go for this kind of movie, from the beginning you know there’s not much in the story.

Captain America ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Very bleh. Some of my friends seem to have liked it. Maybe I never understood Captain America enough to appreciate this.

Bad Teacher ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Not funny. Not good. Do not watch.

Cedar Rapids ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Funny in bits and pieces. Ed Helms is only one out of the trio, so don’t expect it to be Hangover funny.

Batman - Under the Red Hood ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Did I mention how awesome Batman animated movies are? Well, they are. If you’re a fan, you’re making a mistake missing this.

Top Gun ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Saw it the first time this month. Heard so much about it. Also, I finally started understanding Tom Cruise’s accent.

Green Lantern ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Story’s crap. Ryan Reynolds wasn’t as bad as I thought. Not seeing this in 3D was the best decision I made.

Unknown ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Liam Neeson makes entertaining movies. Just like his movie ‘Taken’, this movie is gripping and you constantly want to know what happens next.

Mission Impossible 3 ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Not nearly as good as the previous Mission Impossible movies. But it was good even if it was a tad unbelievable. Now waiting for MI 4 - Ghost Protocol.

Crappy phone. Good phone.

Processor, RAM and GPU - All outdated compared to friends’ Android phones. Phone lags while starting apps. Very rarely, but they do crash. Apps work well during use. Usually not unpredictable. They always respond to touch. Phone doesn’t switch off randomly. Apps don’t stop or lag randomly. This makes it seem faster than it is. You don’t need the best hardware. Good software on the right hardware seems enough. A sustained market. You think you’ve paid more than you should have. You probably can’t win on specifications. Two years…and you’ll still win on usability.