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Deliberate Crash

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Weird and The Wonderful
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  • A Offline
    A Offline
    ARopo
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    Once back in the early 90s when internet connections were not so common. I was working on some general exception trapping in an application written in C, to test it I added something like this to startup code of the application

    int* ptrDummy = NULL;
    if (*ptrDummy == 0) /* this causes an access violation*/

    Having finished that I checked it in to the main product code which got build into a special release for a customer who had had some problems with the software. An engineer was sent from our office in the uk to the customer in the South of France with the software on a CD. The engineer then installed it on the customers system, ran it up in frount of the customer only to discover that it crashed on startup. Sorry engineer.

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    • A ARopo

      Once back in the early 90s when internet connections were not so common. I was working on some general exception trapping in an application written in C, to test it I added something like this to startup code of the application

      int* ptrDummy = NULL;
      if (*ptrDummy == 0) /* this causes an access violation*/

      Having finished that I checked it in to the main product code which got build into a special release for a customer who had had some problems with the software. An engineer was sent from our office in the uk to the customer in the South of France with the software on a CD. The engineer then installed it on the customers system, ran it up in frount of the customer only to discover that it crashed on startup. Sorry engineer.

      R Offline
      R Offline
      rentzk
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      That's why you should always surround this type of test code with a safety that requires some sort of deliberate configuration change to trigger. I wish I could have learned this before I managed to release an installer with test diagnostic dialogs embedded in it. While our QA team was never able to reproduce the steps needed to trigger things, the customers sure could. :(

      C 1 Reply Last reply
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      • R rentzk

        That's why you should always surround this type of test code with a safety that requires some sort of deliberate configuration change to trigger. I wish I could have learned this before I managed to release an installer with test diagnostic dialogs embedded in it. While our QA team was never able to reproduce the steps needed to trigger things, the customers sure could. :(

        C Offline
        C Offline
        Chris Meech
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        rentzk wrote:

        the customers sure could

        They are relatives of Murphy[^]. :)

        Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra]

        S 1 Reply Last reply
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        • C Chris Meech

          rentzk wrote:

          the customers sure could

          They are relatives of Murphy[^]. :)

          Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra]

          S Offline
          S Offline
          Stryder_1
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          hmmm.... Murphy's in-Laws...

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          • A ARopo

            Once back in the early 90s when internet connections were not so common. I was working on some general exception trapping in an application written in C, to test it I added something like this to startup code of the application

            int* ptrDummy = NULL;
            if (*ptrDummy == 0) /* this causes an access violation*/

            Having finished that I checked it in to the main product code which got build into a special release for a customer who had had some problems with the software. An engineer was sent from our office in the uk to the customer in the South of France with the software on a CD. The engineer then installed it on the customers system, ran it up in frount of the customer only to discover that it crashed on startup. Sorry engineer.

            A Offline
            A Offline
            ARopo
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            On the Plus side this was easy for me to fix.

            1 Reply Last reply
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            • A ARopo

              Once back in the early 90s when internet connections were not so common. I was working on some general exception trapping in an application written in C, to test it I added something like this to startup code of the application

              int* ptrDummy = NULL;
              if (*ptrDummy == 0) /* this causes an access violation*/

              Having finished that I checked it in to the main product code which got build into a special release for a customer who had had some problems with the software. An engineer was sent from our office in the uk to the customer in the South of France with the software on a CD. The engineer then installed it on the customers system, ran it up in frount of the customer only to discover that it crashed on startup. Sorry engineer.

              S Offline
              S Offline
              Steve Wellens
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              Shouldn't you be telling this to a priest in a confessional booth?

              Steve Wellens

              A 1 Reply Last reply
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              • A ARopo

                Once back in the early 90s when internet connections were not so common. I was working on some general exception trapping in an application written in C, to test it I added something like this to startup code of the application

                int* ptrDummy = NULL;
                if (*ptrDummy == 0) /* this causes an access violation*/

                Having finished that I checked it in to the main product code which got build into a special release for a customer who had had some problems with the software. An engineer was sent from our office in the uk to the customer in the South of France with the software on a CD. The engineer then installed it on the customers system, ran it up in frount of the customer only to discover that it crashed on startup. Sorry engineer.

                S Offline
                S Offline
                Stephen Hewitt
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                In most cases when see code that can catch an access violation your looking at a coding horror.

                Steve

                A 1 Reply Last reply
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                • S Steve Wellens

                  Shouldn't you be telling this to a priest in a confessional booth?

                  Steve Wellens

                  A Offline
                  A Offline
                  ARopo
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  Perhaps you've hit upon an idea for a new message board 'Coding Confession Box'

                  1 Reply Last reply
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                  • S Stephen Hewitt

                    In most cases when see code that can catch an access violation your looking at a coding horror.

                    Steve

                    A Offline
                    A Offline
                    ARopo
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    Actual the code for catching the access violations was pretty good, It logged a snap shot of the callstack to a file, then using witchcraft .map and .code files you could find and fix the problem back at base without having to reproduce the problem.

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