CODE STOPS IN ".EXE" FILE?

[BRENT GARDNER]

I just copied a PB3.5 PROGRAM FROM WINDOWS 98 TO MY OLD IBM
WINDOWS 3.1 AND RECOMPILED. It will run fine in the "IDE",
but when I type the ".exe" at the command prompt, it freezes
up in one of the subfunction? How can this happen, run ok in
the "ide" and not the "exe" file?
Someone please help

Thanks,
Brent

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[Lance Edmonds]

There is not much info to go on there Brent. What is the sub/function doing that causes the crash? Do you actually know which sub/function it is, or are you guessing based on the text display, or something else altogether?

The first step in debugging is to enable error trapping by adding $ERROR ALL ON to the code, recompile, then try the app on the other machine again.


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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[BRENT GARDNER]

Lance,

I ran my program in old computer with "$ERROR ALL", but did
not show any different results. I finally figured out that
I was running program in IDE with the compile destination set
to memory. When I changed destination to ".EXE" and tried to
compile, I get free memory space: 2656k time: 00:06 - at bottom
PRESS CTRL-BREAK TO QUIT. O.K., when I press Ctrl-Break, nothing
happens and I have to simply turn off computer. I checked to
see if I had ctrl-break turned "on" in options>linker and it was?
Well, after numerious tries, I finally noticed in the "dos" dir
that my ".exe" file size had increased, so I typed the .exe file
name in at the prompt and it worked fine. Why does the compile
not show success? Why does it stop after both phases have
completed?

Thanks for your help,
Brent

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[Lance Edmonds]

Hi Brent,

Unfortunately I can offer no serious suggestions since I'm not able to see or duplicate the problem, and have almost no information from you surrounding the precise circumstances, machine and OS details, OS configuration, build version of compiler, etc.

For example, it could be that your OS was unstable and needed rebooting, a file is corrupted, your memory manager is bad, your PC is faulty, there is a TSR that is interfering, or gamma radiation is strong in your locale right now. Or it could be a bug in the compiler. I have no way to tell given the small amount of information provided above.

However, if you'd like to ZIP the entire code you are using and email it to tech support, along with all the information mentioned above (plus the contents of your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS [or equivalent files if you are using NT/2000/XP/etc]), statistics of free memory and memory organization, TSR list, plus the time/date stamp of your compiler (PB.EXE), I'll take a look for you...

Thanks!

PS: your Reply-notification messages are bouncing... please update your Forum Profile with a valid email address. Thanks!


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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[BRENT GARDNER]

I finally got my PB 3.5 program to compile in my old IBM COMPUTER.
The program LINKS a unit full of sub routines. Three of the sub
routines had PUBLIC declared on top line of Sub and paarameters.
Well, one of parameters or shared variables matched a var. I used
to keep the count of records in a random access file in my main
program. So, I changed the variable name and the .exe file
changed from 193,000 to 184,000 and compiled properly. It seems
anything over 185,000 bytes in .exe file is too much to compile.

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[Lance Edmonds]

I've created dozens of PBU and EXE files that are WAY larger than that (one .PBU is 259Kb and PBU's do not include any RTL code!) , so unfortunately your conclusion cannot be correct.

The problem with code compiling fine on one PC and not on another is symptomatic of a memory manager problem on the problem PC.

If CONFIG.SYS is using HIMEM.SYS (and EMM386.EXE) that are located in the \DOS folder, then change it so that it uses the versions installed in the \WINDOWS folder (or vice versa!).

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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[BRENT GARDNER]

Lance,

Sorry, my program had same problem on [aptiva] windows 98 and
ibm pc[windows 3.1]. The Config file are different on each computer.
win98 ex: DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS/TESTMEM OFF
FILES=100
BUFFER=100
DOS=HIGH.UMB
SHELL = C:\COMMAND.COM C:\/P /E:512
WIN3.1 EX EVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH
FILES=30
SHELL C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS /P /E:512
DEVICE C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE /DOUBLE_BUFFER
STACKS 9256
Do I need to change anything?

Thanks,

Brent

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[Lance Edmonds]

First, for the Win3.1 machine, I'd change the HIMEM.SYS path to use the newer version installed in the DOS folder, thus:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS

Also, I'd get rid of the SETVER line and the STACKS lines, as they appear redundant.

Finally, the DOS line should have a comma, rather than a period.

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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>