Exception handling

how can c do exception handling if it's running in protected mode?

What do you mean by "protected mode" ?

What type of compiler are you using?

VC++6 but that's not the point, protected mode is an addressing mode that limmits the ammount of addressable ram into sepperate chunks.

Well, the compiler makes a huge difference. Usually you can access 4 GB of swap space while running in "protected mode". But my guess with VC++ (which I've never really used) is that it doesn't allow exception handling since you're dealing with segmented programs (which means they're running in a hierarchical order and can not necessarily be accessed by each other.) In essence, while in protected mode, the program is not able to access outside memory. I know this isn't a really good explanation -- it's basically just a stab in the dark. With the GCC compiler, you can do exception handling whenever you want.