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From: tleylan@pegasus.com (Tom Leylan)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Clipper 5.01 error message
Keywords: Clipper Arghhhh
Message-ID: <1991May8.205744.20911@pegasus.com>
Date: 8 May 91 20:57:44 GMT
References: <1991May7.235644.28744@gmuvax2.gmu.edu>
Organization: Pegasus,  Honolulu
Lines: 51

In article <1991May7.235644.28744@gmuvax2.gmu.edu> mhovan@gmuvax2.gmu.edu (Mike Hovan) writes:
>
>	Well I recieved 5.01 yesterday, installed today, and almost
>threw it out the window tonight.
>
>	 (0)  Unrecoverable error 668 : Eval Stack Fault
>	run-time error R6001
>	-  null pointer assignment
>
>	Doesn't look good, I know a MSC error when I see one.  You know
>this is the 3rd revision of the Clipper product I have worked with  
>(S87, 5.0, 5.01) in the last 3 years, and as far as I am concerned this
>thing is still in alpha test mode.  
>
>	The error happens before getting into any of my code (the first line
>of code is a DISPOUT("MADE IT") and that never gets executed).  The 
>particular project is about 7000 lines of code (re)written from scratch
>when 5.0 came out.  The program has no warnings under the 5.0 compiler.
>
Mike,

I don't know if you can accept my comments in the helpful way that they
are intended but try.

First, you have a problem with the code.  Nothing unusual there, I'd be
happy to send you some of my C code that blows up yet I do not scream that
Microsoft doesn't know what they are doing.

Second, you are mistaken about the "alpha mode" comment.  If we legitimize
our knowledge by the number of versions that we've used then it's important
that you know I started with Winter '85 and that I have used 5.0 since it
was created and wrote the 5.0 demo that appeared at the 1989 Comdex Fall.

There were problems with the original 5.0 release and nobody denies it and
everybody regrets it but 5.01 is as solid as anything I've seen.

To get the heart of your problem, are you using any third-party libraries,
some of them have not been updated to work properly with 5.01 ?  Have you
tried isolating parts of the code ?  I can guarantee that your first line
of code would execute, the stack overflow appears to be happening in the
startup code.  Have you inadvertantly used S'87 code (perhaps in your own
personal .LIB file) ?  Which linker are you using ?  If not the .RTLink
supplied then you could have an old version of Blinker or Warplink.

In short, I'd be happy to help you with problems but if you are going to
throw your arms up in the air and badmouth what I think is a superior
product to others of the same vein then it isn't that I don't want to help
but that you don't want it.

tom
(ex-Senior Systems Analyst / Nantucket Corporation)