Hi,
If n == 0, and System.exit(n) is called, it tells any "listening"
application that your application has completed without error.
For instance, JEdit has a JCompiler within it, and it probably uses
the return code to determine if the Sun,
Java compiler completed
with or without error.
So, other system processes can, I presume, sense the return code
assuming that these processes are running within the same command
file (.sh for Unix, or .bat for Windows).
Now, keep in mind, that I don't write batch processes, but this is my
understanding.
If n != 0, then the error code might be looked up in a user's manual
to determine what the problem was for your application. However,
presumably, a quite detailed error message in English and a stack
trace are already available for our Java applications because we wrote
them that way, so in a sense, the error code is old fashioned
and not relevant. Perhaps, then, just one non-zero value is sufficient
for our applications if they experience any error of any type.
Keep in mind, of course, that you would only use n != 0 and call
System.exit(n) if your program had to terminate due to some error.
This is usually pretty rare, I would think.
For me, personally, and at this time, and subject to change, there does
exist one case where my program will force an exit: this is when the
calls to unlock() fail; for then I want the application to quit because
something is wrong with the database and this is a severe error; I also
want the application to quit because I want the records, which are
still locked on the server, to be released as soon as possible.
In short, the value of n, whether n == 0 or n != 0, definitely will not
effect your particular application in any way.
Thanks,
Javini Javono
[ May 07, 2004: Message edited by: Javini Javono ]
