Problems with EDIT/FDL after VMS 7.3-2 upgrade

[M C_1]

All - I have a very unusual problem with regard to EDIT/FDL that began to occur after upgrading my AlphaStation XP 900 to VMS 7.3-2. Seems before upgrading I was able to perform $ ANALYZE/RMS/FDL xxx.txt and then $ EDIT/FDL xxx.FDL. This worked no problem however, since upgrading to 7.3-2 the EDIT/FDL part causes all my DECterms to vanish.

No matter how many terms I have open they all vanish.

When this first started it did not appear to be consistant but I can now reproduce this at will.

One interesting note - once all my DECterms vanish, I open up a new one. If I go back to the FDL file and EDIT/FDL again it reproduces the problem.

The only time this seem not to occur is when I specifically create a file using $ create xxx.txt. Then follow the process of ANALYZING the file and EDIT/FDL

A little background - I use my AlphaStation via Decwindows and DECterms not through a emulator. However, if I try this via an emulator (Reflections) no problems at all.

I know that DECwindows was upgraded as part of the 7.3-2 upgrade. I don't have a clue as to why this is happening. Any suggestions? Any logs I could look at? patches?

Thanks - MC

[labadie_1]

I have recently upgraded several alphas to 7.3-2, uses only edt as an editor and have not had the smallest problem. I have applied all the rating 1 and 2 patches immediately, may be ?

what gives
$ sh ter
before you uses EDT ?
Do you have a recognized terminal name ?
Check you have hotstync and ttsync, which often helps.

try a basic
$ set term/vt100
before the edt ?

[Bojan Nemec]

Hi,

Maybe yours problem is because EDIT/FDL use a graphics terminal (I dont know any other command which use graphics terminals), and there is a bug in the DECterm.
Try to type (before running EDIT/FDL):

$ SET TERMINAL/NOREGIS

Bojan

[M C_1]

lbadie -

It appears that setting the terminal to VT100 device type has fixed the problem. Initial testing does not reproduce the problem. YEA !!

I will continue testing using different options and see where that leads.

Thanks - MC

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

Conclusion : you have to re-qualify everything even for a small upgrade or patch installation.

Wim

[M C_1]

All - I have test several options and all appear to be working properly as long as the device type is VT100. I usually performe a set term/inquire to automatically set this but no more..

Wim - I agree with you but for something like this, one would not expect this to break. My routine does not usually involve edit/fdl. It was by chance that I needed to do this and noticed the problem.

labadie - I should have given you 10 pts for your correct answer. Reply again and I will give the correct amt..

MC

[Ian Miller.]

did the version of DECwindows change when you upgraded? It looks like a problem with the regis grapics handling parhaps.

Can you report it to hp

[M C_1]

ian - Per the Release notes and Upgrade Guide, a new version of DECwindows is installed.

MC

[Hein van den Heuvel]

Interesting... someone actually uses edit/fdl in interactive mode!
Cool!

I'm curious, what kind of tasks do you do interactively?
You seem to be working on an FDL file for a sequential file. Those are rather boring.

You do know that FDL files can just as easily be edited with any text editor right?
TPU, EDT, LSE, DCL or PERL scripts, whatever.!

I'd recommend also retrying EDIT/FDL with alternative terminal emulators. Like PuTTY?
Some of those have a 'datascope' mode.
That allows you to 'see' the escape sequences.

I suspect it is a DECwindows introduced incompatiblity and EDIT/FDL is an innocent user. I suppose you could verify that by pulling the edit/fdl images from an older VMS system.
btw... I like to use SET WATCH FILE/CLA=MAJOR to be sure about the images being activated. ANAL/IMA, can also help with that.


Cheers,
Hein.

[Ian Miller.]

Are you using EDIT/FDL/DISPLAY ?

Which version of DECwindows did you have before the upgrade and which version now.

Can you open a case with hp as this looks like a bug.

[M C_1]

Hein - I was involved with editing FDL files interactively because we were experiencing a problem with a incoming file from a windows system. I was dumping contents looking for 0A and 0D chars within the file and stripping or adding if necessary via the convert utility before loading into an application.

I know that the FDL files can be edited directly but I was being curious while using the utility. I also tested this using Reflections and Putty emulators but could not reproduce the problem.

Ian - I did not use the EDIT/FDL/DISPLAY but never used that before either. The previous version of DECwindows was 1.2-6 and the new version is 1.3.1

Is anyone else able to reproduce the problem? I had my officemate try on her AlphaStation and no go.. Could not reproduct the problem (Same version of VMS and DECwindows, Same Hardware).

MC

[Martin Kirby_1]

There is a problem with a stack overflow in the terminal controller when handling Regis graphics. It may be that you are falling over that. Given that it is a stack issue it could depend on exactly what settings are in use and on the data being displayed.

(The terminal controller is a detached process that handles the DECwindows side of all the terminal windows to the same display.)

There may be a DECTERM_ERROR.LOG recording the crash.

You can also run your own terminal controller and see if you get some sort of error. Create two DECterms normally:

In (a) execute "run sys$system:decw$terminal"
In (b) execute "create/term/det"
In the created DECterm execute the EDIT/FDL command. It should use the new terminal controller, crash that, without crashing the other terminals.

If the issue is the stack overflow then you will need to escalate to get a fix.

Martin Kirby
A DECwindows maintainer