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**Todd Wasson** · 22 Aug 2001, 05:34 PM

Found a clue. After a file (turns out to mess up any included file)
is compiled, it puts a series of what look like escape key codes.
For instance, at the end of this part of Win32api.inc, there are four
small squares inserted (those are escape characters, right?.)

"You have a royalty-free right to use, modify, " (four little squares)

These are visible through Windows Explorer and several of these are
scattered throughout any included file after compiling. Any idea why
they might be showing up? Only the one program causes this to happen,
so I doubt it's a problem with the PowerBasic compiler, and it's the
only Graphics Tools aided program that fails.

Thanks,

------------------
Todd Wasson
-------------
Performance Simulations
Drag Racing and Top Speed
Prediction Software
http://PerformanceSimulations.Com

**Don Dickinson** · 22 Aug 2001, 06:08 PM

They're not necessarily esc codes - they're just non-displayable ascii characters. Like a chr$(1,2, etc). Very weird I wonder how they're getting into that file. You might want to checkout those bytes in the file as see what their ascii value is. It might provide a further clue. Good luck!
--Don

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dickinson.basicguru.com

**Eric Pearson** · 22 Aug 2001, 06:24 PM

Todd --

I have never heard of this problem before. But I feel confident in saying -- and I'm pretty sure that PowerBASIC will agree with me -- that if this is a compile-time problem you can rule out Graphics Tools as the cause.

At compile time, the only part of Graphics Tools that is involved is DECLARE statements and equate definitions in the GfxTools.INC file. In other words, 100.00% source code. As far as I know there is no way for a "bug" in a source code file to cause a problem like this. Almost by definition, if the compiler runs across an error in source code it should display a compile-time error message.

That being said, it also seems unlikely that the compiler itself is corrupting the file (unless the compiler has been damaged in some way). I doubt that any type of "write" operation is ever performed on a source file by a PowerBASIC compiler.

Have you tried write-protecting the WIN32API.INC file? If something is corrupting it, it seems like that program would fail (or display an error message) when it encountered the read-only file.

> those are escape characters, right?.

Well, they are probably control characters (ASCII < 32) or high-bit characters (ASCII > 127). Try using an editor that will allow you to display the file using the System or Fixed Sys font, which both include most of the high-bit characters.

Are the characters always the same, and always in the same place? You can use an editor like UltraEdit to examine the ASCII values of the actual characters, instead of relying on the editor to display the characters. (The shareware version of UE can be downloaded from UltraEdit.com.)

If it possible that your PBDLL.EXE file has been corrupted? What's the date stamp? The file size?

Have you checked your system for viruses?

-- Eric Pearson, Perfect Sync Software

------------------
Perfect Sync Development Tools
Perfect Sync Web Site
Contact Us: mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[This message has been edited by Eric Pearson (edited August 22, 2001).]

**Eric Pearson** · 22 Aug 2001, 06:33 PM

[More]

> These are visible through Windows Explorer

Visible how? I'm not aware of any file viewers that are built into Explorer. Do you mean Notepad or Wordpad?

-- Eric

**Todd Wasson** · 22 Aug 2001, 07:00 PM

Eric,

It's getting late, so I'll check into what those bytes are
another time. They always appear in the same place in Win32api.inc,
and after trying to compile another program (after the Win32api.inc
was corrupted), a different file that's included was also corrupted.

Luckily, it's short so I can just go through and delete the
characters and everything's fine, or just copy over the backup.

I am sure you're right about Graphics Tools NOT being related to
the problem, as it happens during compile time. Somehow, the
characters are thrown in, then an error pops up about missing
stuff in win32api.inc and it doesn't complete the compile.
(Viewed with Wordpad.)

I'll try write protecting win32api.inc as you suggested and
see what happens.

I don't think it's a virus. This is a program that I wrote over
a year and a half ago that needs a modification for someone (the SAS
prog at my site). The same thing happened during development, but
only towards the end, and I've never had it happen with any other
program. Could it be a memory problem or something? The prog is my
longest, at almost 10,000 lines.

Anyway, I'll check out the scan code and let you know.

Thanks for your quick replies,

------------------
Todd Wasson
-------------
Performance Simulations
Drag Racing and Top Speed
Prediction Software http://PerformanceSimulations.Com

[This message has been edited by Todd Wasson (edited August 22, 2001).]

**John Kovacich** · 24 Aug 2001, 10:04 AM

Have you ruled out disk corruption with scandisk (or your favorite
disk utility)?

I have had corrupt source files, but the corruption seemed to move
around, because the disk itself was corrupt, and the files were not
writing correctly.

------------------
Thanks,

John Kovacich
Ivory Tower Software
www.i-tower.com

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