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Re: Mysterious gdb behavior.


At 10:00 PM 7/29/2002, Paul Derbyshire wrote:
>On 29 Jul 2002 at 13:36, Samuel wrote:
>
> > > Error 193 is a Windows API error.  Specifically, it is
> > > ERROR_BAD_EXE_FORMAT.  I thought the normal way to find this out was to
> > > type "net helpmsg 193" but that doesn't work on my W2K system.
> > 
> > 
> > For those that have the Windows SDK header files, the following is a copy of
> > the relevant portion of winerror.h:
> > 
> > //
> > // MessageId: ERROR_BAD_EXE_FORMAT
> > //
> > // MessageText:
> > //
> > //  %1 is not a valid Windows NT application.
> > //
> > #define ERROR_BAD_EXE_FORMAT             193L
>
>It'd be nice of the gdb port would translate error numbers like 193 
>into meaningful error messages. Instead, the user has to look around 
>in winapi header files. No, scratch that, since gdb doesn't even 
>indicate that it's a Windows error code, the user has to either be 
>knowledgeable about the gdb source code and have the time and 
>inclination to go hunting through it to see where the error message 
>is coming from, or they have to ask the mailing list an expert on 
>which will then do likewise. And, of course, the natural thing to do 
>with the gdb source in this instance is to search it for #define foo 
>193 only to find it isn't there, because it turned out gdb is only 
>passing this number on from a system call...
>
>Cryptic error messages, especially raw numbers, are the bane of 
>troubleshooting and of end users everywhere.



Hi Paul,

I'm not sure how long you've been a part of this list but your name 
seems new to me.  Let me take a moment to welcome you to the Cygwin 
community.  It's a group of volunteers and users, all working to make Cygwin better.

Certainly, you've jumped right in!  I can see you've been quite prolific 
on the email list recently.  I think it's great that you're curious about the 
problems you're seeing and have ideas for solutions.  I am, however, concerned 
that you're not going to get much in the way of responses from knowledgeable 
folk on this list if you don't try to work with those who respond to your 
posts.  I can see that some might see your responses as inflammatory.  To be
sure, everyone's entitled to a rant or two on this list.  The email archive
is full of them.  I'm sure it wouldn't take someone too long to find a post or
two of mine that qualifies. ;-)  Still, it's important to recognize that 
the goal of this list is to exchange information.  A certain healthy dose
of tolerance is sometimes required to keep a reasonable signal to noise ratio.
Don't forget, this is a list of volunteers.  Volunteers aren't as motivated
to spend their "free" time trying to help folks that don't work with them.
I only mention that because I can see how many of your recent posts (including
this one) might be perceived by maintainers (and others) as divisive.  I'd
hate to see posts of yours on good issues go ignored because of this.  Since
you may be new to the list, I thought I'd point out how you might best get
information you need.  You may be fully aware of all this already.  If so,
I apologize for conveying it too you again.  But if not, it seemed negligent 
of me not to point this out.  

I hope you find Cygwin useful and I look forward to your future contributions
to it's continued success.

Best Regards,


Larry Hall                              lhall@rfk.com
RFK Partners, Inc.                      http://www.rfk.com
838 Washington Street                   (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office
Holliston, MA 01746                     (508) 893-9889 - FAX


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