Talk:Watchdog timer

Software watchdog
May I suggest adding a mention of the linux software watchdog service? (/dev/watchdog)

How about "kicking the dog", since it makes the dog bark! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.4.0.55 (talk) 21:37, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

actually there is quite a lot missing here. 1. watchdog timers are a special kind of watchdog, as there are also, e.g. challenge-response watchdogs, time-frame watchdogs, etc. watchdog are a special kind of supervisor. in a hardware design a supervisor is a contraption that supervises the functionality of the device and executes a defined procedure when it detects a failure. a superviser can supervise voltage (brown-out-detector), a clock frequency, etc. i think maybe the watchdog article should be worked over, that won't be hard and an additional supervisor article might not be a bad thing at all.--188.195.79.173 (talk) 06:28, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Use of "kick" as general term for resetting watchdog timer
Can we please alter this to be a more appropriate metaphor? "Kicking the dog" is a relic widely in disuse in programming now. "Petting" is much more commonplace. Ultimately, neither is as intuitive as "reset," though. --SallowDay (talk) 21:14, 28 June 2021 (UTC)
 * I respectfully disagree. "Kick" is commonly used today and, IMO, more appropriate than "petting" due to the suddenness of the underlying electric pulse. "Reset" can be confused with the (typically) resulting CPU reset, and it's not always a valid description of what's happening (e.g., loading a down-counter). Opinions aside, it would be useful to have a RS that lists the frequency of usage of the various terms. Lambtron  talk  14:06, 30 June 2021 (UTC)