G'day,

When runnning PovRay Beta 11 on Windows 2000 SP2, the following code
produces either

1. A normal PovRay "explected float constant" error
2. Endless "Unable to allocate memory for message string" dialog boxes
3. A crash and instant exit from PovRay

It's hard to tell which particular effect will occur ... I just run the
script a few times and it soon crashes.

If I remove the #debug line from the following code, it no longer crashes...

// Crash PovRay Beta 11 on Win2K
//
#declare Result = vnormalize(<0, 0, 0>);
#debug "Hello!\n"
#fopen Test_File "test-bug.tmp" write
#write (Test_File, Result)
#fclose Test_File
#fopen Test_File "test-bug.tmp" read
#read (Test_File, A_Variable)
#fclose Test_File

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On WinXP here, using the beta.11.icl.win32 which i suppose you also are
using, I get the tmp file opened showing:
<-1.#IND,-1.#IND,-1.#IND>

Removing the #debug line has no effect that I can see.

bob h

"Warwick Barnes" <war### [at] barnesquinncom> wrote in message
news:3c7c3ac7$1@news.povray.org...
>
> When runnning PovRay Beta 11 on Windows 2000 SP2, the following code
> produces either
>
> 1. A normal PovRay "explected float constant" error
> 2. Endless "Unable to allocate memory for message string" dialog boxes
> 3. A crash and instant exit from PovRay
>
> If I remove the #debug line from the following code, it no longer
crashes...

Post a reply to this message

Warwick Barnes wrote in message <3c7c3ac7$1@news.povray.org>...
>When runnning PovRay Beta 11 on Windows 2000 SP2, the following code
>produces either
>
>1. A normal PovRay "explected float constant" error
>2. Endless "Unable to allocate memory for message string" dialog boxes
>3. A crash and instant exit from PovRay


>#declare Result = vnormalize(<0, 0, 0>);

There's the problem -- normalizing the zero vector is not defined.

--
Mark

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Mark Wagner wrote:
> 
> Warwick Barnes wrote in message <3c7c3ac7$1@news.povray.org>...
> >When runnning PovRay Beta 11 on Windows 2000 SP2, the following code
> >produces either
> >
> >1. A normal PovRay "explected float constant" error
> >2. Endless "Unable to allocate memory for message string" dialog boxes
> >3. A crash and instant exit from PovRay
> 
> >#declare Result = vnormalize(<0, 0, 0>);
> 
> There's the problem -- normalizing the zero vector is not defined.

Yes, but IIRC it was legal to normalize
a zero vector in v3.1g. You would just
get a zero vector as the result.

It seems that this is a change that will
break backward compatibility for some
scenes.

My opinion is that this change in behaviour
should be mentioned in the docs. And I also
think that a better error message should be
issued.


Tor Olav

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G'day again, (having pressed the wrong button on my newsreader the first
time, this will now hopefully get through...)

I've just run the code again on the same computer. On the first two runs it
does as you describe (temp file with "-1.#IND..." in it) but on the third
run it crashed into the endless sequence of "memory for message string"
boxes.

I've also just run the code on an Armada E500 laptop (Win2K SP2 also) and it
crashed on the first run with:

----------

pvengine.exe - Application Error. The instruction at 0x77fcb892" referenced
memory at "0x3a450054". The memory could not be "written".

----------

I re-ran PovRay, commented-out the #debug line and ran the script 12 times.
It 'worked' (ie gave the "expected float constant" error) each time. I
un-commented the #debug and ran the code again. It crashed on the third run.

The #debug may have nothing to do with it ... maybe it's just co-incidence
but I'm not sure. There have been some other strange things happening with
#read and #write but I haven't been able to isolate them yet...

Warwick



"bob h" <omn### [at] charternet> wrote in message
news:3c7c538e@news.povray.org...
> On WinXP here, using the beta.11.icl.win32 which i suppose you also are
> using, I get the tmp file opened showing:
> <-1.#IND,-1.#IND,-1.#IND>
>
> Removing the #debug line has no effect that I can see.
>
> bob h
>
> "Warwick Barnes" <war### [at] barnesquinncom> wrote in message
> news:3c7c3ac7$1@news.povray.org...
> >
> > When runnning PovRay Beta 11 on Windows 2000 SP2, the following code
> > produces either
> >
> > 1. A normal PovRay "explected float constant" error
> > 2. Endless "Unable to allocate memory for message string" dialog boxes
> > 3. A crash and instant exit from PovRay
> >
> > If I remove the #debug line from the following code, it no longer
> crashes...
>
>
>

Post a reply to this message