Bug Report #10
For Niakwa Programming Language
Report Date - August 15, 1994

This report lists known problems in the Niakwa Programming Language, Releases III and IV, for all platforms supported, which were discovered after January 7, 1994. This report is in addition to Bug Reports 1 through 9. This report is available on the Niakwa's web site at "www.niakwa.com" and can be downloaded along with a Bug Report Index.

NOTES:

* The first part of the Report contains closed or resolved bugs that were listed in previous reports. Bugs that are listed as "Under Review" in previous reports and are not listed in this report are still open.
* Bugs are identified in this report by problem number, the internal Niakwa bug code number (shown in parentheses). Corrected bugs have in addition the report number where they were originally published.
* Some bugs described in this report are corrected in a revision of the NPL RunTime that is not yet available for the field. Developers should be aware that Revision 3.xx bug correction may never be released to the field, and are published here for informational purposes only. All bug corrections noted in these releases have also been applied to NPL Release IV (either the current version or future releases).
* An interim revision of Release IV NPL for MS-DOS based platforms, which corrects some of the bugs listed in this report, is available from Niakwa Technical Support on request. Contact Niakwa for details.
* For a current update on corrected bugs, refer to the BBS Bug Index that is updated monthly. The Bug Index can be downloaded or provided upon request.
* For the latest product release available, refer to the latest Niakwa Newsletter or the Niakwa BBS.

Corrected Problems Listed in Previous Reports
Problem 4 (00753)/Report 10:

The pitch control does not work correctly in the Niakwa Help Utility "PRINTER CONTROL".
Any attempt to change the pitch is not successful.

Solution: Corrected on 3.21.10.05V and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 3.21.10.03. V

Platforms: DEC -VMS
New Open Problems
1. Problem: (00757)

LIST 9999 lists all subsequent line numbers, without pause:

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.18 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI

Revision Number: 3.20 and greater

Platforms: DOS / MS-Windows
2. Problem: (00755)

Attempts to use a string function as a STR argument results in an error 529.

For example:

B$ = STR('test$(A$), 2, 3)

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.17

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP, B2C

Revision Number: 4.00 and greater

Platforms: All
3. Problem: (00754)

On 386 versions, if a program has a runaway recursive loop, the RunTime does not handle this well. Memory faults may occur on UNIX. The problem exists on all Release IV 386 versions tested, but sometimes can be intermittent. On 386/DOS-Extender versions, the problem may occur before the limit of 512 levels of recursion is reached.

For Example:

5    DIM X
10  DIM A$(10)1
20  PROCEDURE 'TEST(POINTER A, /POINTER A$0)
25  X=X+1: PRINT X
30  'TEST(A,A$0)
40  END PROCEDURE
50  'TEST(A,A$0)

On 386/DOS Extender, 4.00.20 produces memory fault with CS:EIP of 000Fh:0001C3EBh. 4.10.02 gives 000Fh:0001C987h.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.16 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00.20 and greater

Platforms: All 386 (386/DOS-Extender/UNIX)
4. Problem: (00753)

Use of the /D option with any value over 16 produces an immediate memory fault.

Solution: Under Review

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.10.13 and greater.

Platforms: UNIX
5. Problem: (00751)

If the HEX(02) bit of byte 42 of $OPTIONS is set, edit mode line insert (CTRL/F1) no longer works (ALT/0) does work).

Solution: Corrected in 4.10.15 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI

Revision Number: 4.x and greater

Platforms: DOS / MS-Windows
6. Problem: (00750)

The extended form of $SOURCE does not generate a proper p-code label on the file. A version 1.08 label is generated instead of 1.10.

Solution: Under review

Programs Affected: RTI, B2C

Revision Number: 4.x and greater

Platforms: All
7. Problem: (00747)

Using a variable larger than 64K as the receiver for a $GIO statement results in a memory protection fault - CS:EIP 00Fh:00022CF9h.

Solution: Corrected in 4.10.15 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.10.02 and greater

Platforms: 386/DOS Extender
8. Problem: (00746)

Execution of a RETURN CLEAR ALL statement inside a FUNCTION/PROCEDURE body causes any /POINTER variable to become corrupted.

Solution: Corrected in 4.10.08 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00 and greater

Platforms: All
9. Problem: (00745)

Applications that have a tight loop within a polling KEYIN loop cause the pointer to switch to an hourglass, and remain an hourglass, even outside of the NPL window.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.10 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.10.02 and greater

Platforms: MS-Windows
10. Problem: (00744)

The keyboard buffer is not cleared before executing the application boot program.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.10 and greater.

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.10

Platforms: MS-Windows
11. Problem: (00743)

After the cursor has been turned off using HEX(06), using HEX(05) or HEX(02050F) does not always turn it on again.

Solution: Under review

Programs Affected: RT1, RTP

Revision Number: 4.10 and greater

Platforms: MS-Windows
12. Problem: (00742)

LOADDCT "filename" produces a syntax error. A space is required before the "T". Eliminating the "DC" makes it work without spaces. $OBJECT is also affected.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.10 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, B2C

Revision Number: 4.00 and greater

Platforms: All
13. Problem: (00740)

Attempts to open more than 66 files with DATA SAVE DC OPEN causes the terminal to hang,

Solution: Under review

Programs Affected: RTI

Revision Number: 3.20.13 and greater

Platforms: All
14. Problem: (00739)

CTRL+R (recall LINs) does not work if the LIN is in the middle of the line.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.03 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI

Revision Number: 4.10.20 and greater

Platforms: All
15. Problem: (00737)

The EDIT OPTIONS Utility under the NPL Utilities shows the second page bytes 47 and 48 with no description.

Solution: Corrected on 4.00.34 and greater

Programs Affected: UTILITY

Revision Number: 4.0.20 and greater

Platforms: MS-Windows
16. Problem: (00716)

The following code de-compiles incorrectly:

10 IF X=Y THEN $DEMO,V4$ = " "

Solution: Corrected on 4.00.33

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 3.20.02.00.I and greater

Platforms: DOS
17. Problem: (00712)

An X70 error is generated properly, but when it is used in conjunction with the RESTORE command, it corrupts the line number specified by the RESTORE.

Solution: Corrected on 4.00.30 and greater

Programs Affected: RT1

Revision Number: 4.00.20 and greater

Platforms: 386/DOS-Extender
18. Problem: (00711)

LIST T "GOSUB" may report extra occurrences of GOSUBs.

Solution: Corrected on 4.00.23 and greater.

Programs Affected: RTI

Revision Number: 4.00.20 and greater

Platforms: DOS
19. Problem: (00709)

Attempts to save a program that contains long lines generates an error 242.

Solution: Under review

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00.20 and greater

Platforms: DOS
20. Problem: (00708)

Under the 386/DOS-Extender the perimeter color does not work.

Solution: Corrected on 4.00.33 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00.20 and greater

Platforms: DOS / 386/DOS-Extender
21. Problem: (00707)

If the HELP screen is invoked after 132 character mode has been established, the 132 character mode is no longer active when the HELP screen terminates (the screen redisplays in 80 character mode).

Solution: Corrected on 4.00.33 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00.20 and greater

Platforms: DOS / MS-Windows
22. Problem: (00706)

The DEMO box loses text if its bottom line is on line 23 of the screen.

Solution: Corrected on 4.00.30 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00.20 and greater

Platforms: DOS
23. Problem: (00648)

RETURN ERROR(x) values from a callback routine cannot be detected by the calling library.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.18 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00.02 and greater

Platforms: All
24. Problem: (00647)

On 32-bit platforms, the error codes returned by external functions are incorrect if the return value is larger than 255.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.18 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00.02 and greater

Platforms: 386/DOS-Extender / UNIX
25. Problem: (00645)

If RTI halts in immediate mode, with a user-generated error that is not in ERRORMSG.HLP, no additional error messages are displayed. This should only occur if the ERRORMSG.IDX is not found.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.17 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI

Revision Number: 4.00.02 and greater

Platforms: All
26. Problem: (00644)

$OPTIONS byte 48, HEX(02) bit does not work for printers other than LPT1, LPT2, and LPT3..

Solution: Corrected in release 4.10.17 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.10.02 and greater

Platforms: Novell NetWare using VLM drives
27. Problem: (00643)

DATA LOAD BM and DATA SAVE BM requests for more than 64K of data, directed to raw diskettes, fail with error I98.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.17 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.10.02 and greater

Platforms: 386/DOS-Extender
28. Problem: (00642)

LIST STACK may crash RTI, if called when many FUNCTION or PROCEDURE calls are pending.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.16 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI

Revision Number: 4.00.02 and greater

Platforms: All
29. Problem: (00641)

If the first arg-3 of a $GIO involves a function call, an address fault may occur.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.16 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00.02 and greater

Platforms: All but DOS
30. Problem: (00640)

Multi-user RTIWINs may fault at startup if no Novell NetWare or NIAKNETB is detected (when RTI looks for working NetBIOS).

Solution: Corrected on release 4.10.16 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.10.02 and greater

Platforms: MS-Windows
31. Problem: (00639)

The decompiler may corrupt indirect calls to GOSUB' functions which use an indirect name argument.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.14 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, B2C

Revision Number: 4.00.02 and greater

Platforms: All
32. Problem: (00638)

Following an overlay which causes an INCLUDE module to be discarded, a recoverable error that should be caught by an ERROR statement is not caught, thereby causing the program to halt.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.14

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00.02 and greater

Platforms: All
33. Problem: (00637)

RESET sets the STEP # range of all INCLUDEd modules to 0,9999.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.14 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI

Revision Number: 4.00.02 and greater

Platforms: All
34. Problem: (00636)

>$CLOSE statement leaves status flag set, which can cause a LOAD statement in a subsequently called FUNCTION to fail.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.14 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00.02 and greater

Platforms: All
35. Problem: (00634)

Passing security as a SUPERVISOR does not properly set the Novell NetWare Network-Wide Once-A-Day flag, unless the prompt to mount your Gold Key is displayed when passing as SUPERVISOR.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.12 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.10.02 and greater

Platforms: All
36. Problem: (00632)

If compiling a program requires relocation to the end of the DISKIMAGE, B2C hangs or behaves unpredictably.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.08

Programs Affected: B2C

Revision Number: 4.10 and greater

Platforms: All
37. Problem: (00631)

If an external DEFFN' function returns a recoverable error, NPL does not clear the RETURN information for the external GOSUB' from the stack.

Solution: Corrected on 4.10.08 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00 and greater

Platforms: All
38. Problem: (00627)

The CLEAR command resets SPACEW to a value that does not include the memory used by surviving modules (TSR-type with COM variables).

Solution: Corrected on 4.00.33 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00.20 and greater

Platforms: All
39. Problem: (00626)

A LIST V statement reports spurious variable references if it has a restricted line number range.

Solution: Corrected on 4.00.33 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI

Revision Number: 4.00.20 and greater

Platforms: All
40. Problem: (00624)

$FORMAT DISK directed to a non-existent file does not generate an error.

Solution: Corrected on 4.00.30 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: All

Platforms: Xenix, Intel UNIX
41. Problem: (00622)

Access to network files on non-Novell NetWare networks may result in read-only or other inappropriate access capabilities.

Solution: Corrected on 4.00.27 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 3.20 and greater

Platforms: MS-Windows
42. Problem: (00621)

Core dump (or hang/fault) occurs if -OBJFORMAT SCRAMBLED option is selected.

Solution: Corrected on 4.00.30 and greater.

Programs Affected: B2C

Revision Number: 4.00.20 and greater

Platforms: All
43. Problem: (00620)

A LOAD statement executed when the RUN mode has an /EXIT procedure may fail to delete the indicated (or default) program line range, or may get a protection fault on protected mode operating systems.

Solution: Corrected on 4.00.28 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00.20 and greater

Platforms: All
44. Problem: (00619)

If GOTO a statement-label or a GOSUB statement-label references a label that does not exist, the error diagnostic line highlights the following statement on the line.

Solution: Corrected on 4.00.28 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI

Revision Number: 4.00.20 and greater

Platforms: All
45. Problem: (00658)

If a program HALTs or STOPs while in an automatically executing /EXIT procedure, when the program is CONTINUEd, an address fault occurs when it completes the PROCEDURE.

Solution: Corrected in release 4.10.22 and greater

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00.20 and greater

Platforms: All
46. Problem: (00655)

Hardware interrupts can corrupt the stack if RTI is executing a critical code section during program overlay.

Solution: Corrected in release 4.10.21

Programs Affected: RTI, RTP

Revision Number: 4.00.22

Platforms: DOS/Novell