Thread: is system("PAUSE") required in every program?

No, they don't. You can make them do unexpected things, but you cannot breach security. You cannot use them to gain permissions you don't already have. (You might, under very special circumstances, be able to trick someone into executing your code.)

system("pause"); causes my win '98 laptop pain!
Really, it overheats if I leave it for a few minutes.
That indicates to me that it's asking the cpu to do an endless loop or something. (way to go Bill guys...)
I just use a blocking function loop like while(getchar() != '\n'); in C or while(cin.get() != '\n'); in C++.

And re: pre- and post-increment / decrement :

Code:

  cout << endl << "Hit enter to continue";
  while(cin.get() != '\n');
  int x = 10;
  cout <<  x++  << endl;  // prints 10  increments after usage so...
  cout <<    x  << endl;  // prints 11  the change shows up next time x is used
  cout <<  --x  << endl;  // prints 10  decrements before usage so shows up immediately
  cout <<  x--  << endl;  // prints 10  after...
  cout <<    x  << endl;  // prints 9   get the idea?

Yes, Really. Running this alone causes fan to come on after about 10 minutes:

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>
using namespace std;
int main(void)
{
  cout << "Hit the <any> key to continue" ;
  system("pause");
  return 0;
}

Sorry but I don't know of a way to view cpu usage in 98.
Looks like those tools become available for win2000 and up.

I'm pretty sure Win98 had a task manager with a process tab and CPU usage.

I think the bigger problem is that DOS-boxes in Win98 do not end up in Windows IDLE in the same way that a Win NT onwards DOS box does. DOS boxes in Win98 have completely different underlaying software functions, so it may well be that "PAUSE" doesn't stop the CPU from running at 100%.

--
Mats

The examiner is quite obviously an idiot, but there's not much we can do.