Strange crashing

[Richard Miller]

Perhaps someone has some insight into this odd behavior.

Our Rev (Windows) program uses two standalone applications. I'll call  
the first one the Startup app. This app is supposed to keep running  
continuously. The user can press on a button in that app that  
triggers the start of a second standalone app, which I'll call the  
Main app. When the Main app is started, the Startup app is hidden.  
Upon starting the Main app, a flag is set to 1 by the Startup app  
telling it to hide. When the Main app quits, it sets this flag to 0.  
The Startup app is checking once per second to see the condition of  
this flag. Once it goes to 0, the Startup app reappears.

The primary reason this system is set up this way is because the Main  
app is rather complex (capturing and replaying video, amongst other  
things) and needs to run more or less continuously for up to 12 hours  
per day. By completely closing this Main app and restarting it for  
each user "session" as we call it, it seems to run more predictably  
throughout the day.

The problem we're encountering is that, approximately half the time  
that this Main app shuts down, something in Windows forces the  
Startup app to shut down and create a Windows "application crash"  
message. I can't see how this occurs, as there is no connection  
between these two standalones, other than the flag being set in a  
separate text file. Plus, as I said, it only happens about 50% of the  
time.

Any thoughts on this? Is there some way that shutting the Rev engine  
down in one standalone can impact the Rev engine in another  
standalone running at the same time? Again, this is Windows XP. I'm  
sure we wouldn't encounter the same problem on a Mac!

Thanks.
Richard Miller
Imprinter Technologies