Fifth Law of Sane Personal Computing
If the machine encounters an error condition requiring the user's manual intervention, the state of the now-halted process prior to this event shall be preserved, and the user given an opportunity to correct the error using an interactive debugger and resume execution from the saved-and-corrected state. The debugger shall display the code which generated the condition -- and any other executable code on the system, upon request. All of the code shall be viewable and editable in the form preferred for modification. (See the Fourth Law.)
Personal computer operating systems known to obey this law:
1 [*]
Notes and observations:
If you intend to comment to say that this is impossible, spare your keyboard the wear - because my copy of Symbolics Open Genera does this today.
To be continued.
[*] Corrections are welcome.
Many Smalltalk environments have this.