BUG: Viewer Setup Causes Error in SYMTAB11.C

ID: Q113252

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Multimedia Viewer Publishing Toolkit, version 2.0

SYMPTOMS

The setup script included with the Microsoft Multimedia Publishing Toolkit version 2.0 displays the error message:

Setup has encountered a problem.
Please report File='COMMON\SYMTAB11.C', Line='616' to Microsoft Product Support Services.

CAUSE

This error is generated when a setup script tries to replace a list item that is past the end of the list using ReplaceListItem.

The setup script shipped with Viewer, TITLE.MST, expects the value returned by GetWindowsDir() to be in uppercase letters. It contains the line:


   ReplaceListItem szExtras$, ASC(MID$(GetWindowsDir(), 1, 1)) -
         ASC("A") + 1, STR$(4096)

The MID$ function call creates a substring of length 1 and starting at position 1 of the string returned by GetWindowsDir(). This substring will be the drive letter of the drive from which Windows was started. The ASC function call generates the numeric ASCII code for this character. Then the numeric ASCII code for "A" is subtracted from this number. The script expects the result of this to be between 0 and 25, and it increments this number by 1 and uses it as an index into the szExtras$ list, which contains 26 items. If GetWindowsDir() returns an uppercase string, the result of the subtraction will indeed be between 0 and 25. However, if GetWindowsDir() returns a lowercase string, the result will be out of range.

The value returned by GetWindowsDir() would be lowercase if the PATH statement in the user's AUTOEXEC.BAT used lowercase for the name of the Windows directory.

You can see the value that would be returned by the GetWindowsDir() function by typing SET from an MS-DOS prompt in Windows, and checking the value of the "windir" environment variable. This environment variable is set by Windows when it starts up, and it has the same value as is returned by GetWindowsDir().

RESOLUTION

On line 252 of TITLE.MST, change the ReplaceListItem call from


   ReplaceListItem szExtras$, ASC(MID$(GetWindowsDir(), 1, 1)) -
         ASC("A") + 1, STR$(4096)

to the following:


   ReplaceListItem szExtras$, ASC(MID$(UCASE$
         (GetWindowsDir()), 1, 1)) - ASC("A") + 1, STR$(4096)

This will capitalize the value returned from GetWindowsDir(). If the Windows directory is on drive C, this code will subtract "A" from "C", and then add 1, resulting in a value of 3. The szExtras$ symbol has items 1-26, one for each possible drive letter. The value 3 is a valid item in this list.

If you are getting the SYMTAB11.C error but cannot edit the .MST file, you can avoid the error by capitalizing the PATH statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

Additional query words: 2.00 buglist2.00

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Version : :2.0
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