Chapter 9: When Your Software Starts, Stops, or Dies a Quick Death

Overview

Some programs take a very looooooong time to start up. Other programs start up instantly. Some programs seem like they take just a tiny bit longer to start each time you open them. Other programs take forever to shut down. Other programs shut down quickly. And some programs stop too quickly, in that they suddenly crash and shut down. Really, users are the happiest if a program starts quickly (preferably instantly) and shuts down immediately when they shut it down. And, of course, users don’t want a program to crash. In this chapter, I talk about:

• Starting up your program (as well as starting with different options and allowing multiple instances of your program or not)

• Shutting down your program

• Dealing with exceptions