19 replies to this topic

[Mike Nicholson]

OK, has anybody come across this one . . .

I had a function which was all working OK, went to make a minor change (in this case I just put a UMSG in), genned it and it failed - unknown tag ID.

Turns out I've lost all my statics off one of the cycles so no format on the native code.

No idea what triggered this and just a _little_ concerned that it will happen with other things as well - wouldn't fancy losing something subtle off a complicated function (interface parameters, control breaks etc.)

Naff screens, options that just don't do anything occasionally, lots of client crashes, poorly implemented ActiveX functionality. All these things I can cope with but as far as I am concerned losing bits of code makes for an unusable, if not downright dangerous tool

Cheers

Mike

[Lewis Mccabe]

There is a bug in VIP which will be fixed in the next release which is causing your problem. An easy fix and no loss of code is the following:
Go into the statics section of your function via VIP and call up the statics for the cycle which is reporting the missing tag (probably the first cycle). Regen and you should be fine.

Lew

[Mike Nicholson]

I did that - they'd gone completely.

Some limited analysis of the VIP boots would indicate that they had actually been removed from the bootstrap files completely rather than just losing a reference somewhere (although I didn't have a lot of time to check this out so I can't prove that offhand).

I did have the problem you're referring to a week or so back but sorted that. For this I ended up having to copy functions around in native, re-import the native from a prx (fortunately I'd already put there release files together!), rename that, import it to VIP, copy the statics and paste them into the knackered function.

Even then I lost all my associated fields

I think the problem is a little wider than you may think. If it happens again when I've got more time to investigate then I might be able to get a better idea of what triggers it.

Cheers

Mike

[Lewis Mccabe]

If you can I would forward the before and after functions to PRO-IV. This sounds like we have a serious issue. I haven't bumped into it yet but will keep an eye out.

[Mike Nicholson]

I'm going to put it through our bug reporting process. Unfotunately I was too concerned with getting it back to store the 'broken' version.

Hopefully it won't happen again but if it does I'll spend a bit more time seeing if I can work out exactly what had happened. With any luck it's an extension of the bug you described (something else happens after the references have been lost which cause them to disappear completely). If that's the case then it may be OK in the next release.

Fingers crossed...

Cheers

Mike

[Chris Mackenzie]

If you can't reproduce the cause of losing these objects perhaps
you could consider the possibility that you manually deleted
them by accident.

[Mike Nicholson]

2 things :

1. Before you post that you should consider whether you _really_ want the response it's likely to generate from me ;-)

2. I didn't say I couldn't reproduce it, just that I don't have time to try right now. Some of us have work to do...

Cheers

Mike

[Chris Mackenzie]

do you deny the possibilty? If it is a real bug - time reproducing will not be wasted.

[Mike Nicholson]

If you think it's possible to manually remove a set of static objects and totally forget about it then I'm starting to wonder if we made the right decision when we interviewed you for your current position.

In short, yes, I deny the possibility that I did it myself based on the fact that my IQ is higher than my shoe size and about half an hour previously we'd released the function to a test environment where it was all fine (and before you comment it was a native import so I'd have lost VIP references if I'd just brought that one back...)

Of course time reproducing it would not be wasted but I'm not being paid to Beta test VIP on behalf of ProIV. I'll do it when I've got time and the work I'm actually being paid to do right now is complete.

DISABLE(&#@BITE_TONGUE)

Cheers

Mike

[Chris Mackenzie]

Pardon? You did not interview me for my current position. Not even for my previous one
or my next one.



If you think you can't make a mistake then...

If you think it's possible to manually remove a set of static objects and totally forget about it

_BY ACCIDENT_ means you don't do it on purpose and can't forget it - do you see how that works?

yes, I deny the possibility that I did it myself based on the fact that my IQ is higher than my shoe size

Facetiousness won't stop you losing more code if it is a bug..
I invite you to consider you should not dismiss possibilites becaue you believe you cannot
make mistakes.

Edited by Chris Mackenzie, 12 August 2004 - 11:39 AM.

[Mike Nicholson]

One apology - I had interviewed you but not for your Stockholm position. It was for the 'other' Swedish site. In the end we took somebody who was able to play nicely with the other boys and girls.

I don't believe myself to be infallible but under no circumstances would I have posted the original mail without being sure what had happend. Your original response was deliberately provocative and if you're going to go trolling then it's no good trying struggle back to that higher moral ground with poorly constructed sarcasm !!

Nothing will stop me losing more code if it's a bug. The fact remains I don't have time to spend investigating this right now. Nor should I have to!

[Chris Mackenzie]

Keep up - stockholm is not even my previous contract. Not that that has anything
to do with anything and I don't know why you mentioned it.

But I really do think you should try to prove
the case. How much time will it cost you next time it happens?
How can you be sure of what happened if you didn't reproduce it?

FWIW I'm _nearly_ certain you are right with everything you said about it.

Edited by Chris Mackenzie, 13 August 2004 - 08:00 AM.

[gdmjdkc]

Just had the same thing happen to me. I went in to a function that I had not work on since May, removed two lines of code from the exit logic and when I genned the function I received an error of Unknown tag ID.

At that point I could visually see the Text box that the compiler said did not exist. I actually opened the properties and every thing appeared to be okay. I genned the function again and still got the error. I opened the screen editor and when I got there none of my statics existed. I went back to VIP and they were gone from there also.

Luckily, the last time I had worked on this function I did a function clean up which created a back up of the function and was able to restore from the backup.

This is not the first time something like this has happened the last time something happened I had a logic section with just over 100 lines of code in it. I changed a couple of lines then did a save which took an unusually long time. When I genned this function I got and error message of "EndIf" missing. When I opened up the logic the last 20 lines of code were gone. We were able to recover the code from a system backup from the night before.

This is getting a little scary as to how stable this platform is, I would recommend doing backups often especially when making any major changes.

Has anyone else had disappearing code??