[1911] in Athena Bugs
Gripes about nxsaber
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (bjaspan@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Wed Mar 15 21:27:08 1989
From: <bjaspan@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 89 21:26:39 EST
To: bugs@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
I attempted to load and run xzwrite (a reasonably large X toolkit
application) under nxsaber. I managed to execute the program once
or twice, but most of the comments below are from my experience in
loading the files, etc. Since some of the errors didn't recur every
time I tried a certain thing, I included a text cut whenever possible.
1. I tried to #include a header from a filesystem that was not attached.
I fixed the problem and clicked the "reload" button; saber responded by
UNLOADing the current file and continuing with the make.
>5 -> make saber
>load -O -I/mit/StaffTools/include -I/mit/bjaspan/src/stdsrc -L/mit/StaffTools/vaxlib xzwrite.c getstring.o gethomedir.o bfgets.o List.o TextAppend.o -lzephyr -lcom_err -lkrb -ldes -lXaw -lXmu -lXt -lX11
>Loading: -I/mit/StaffTools/include -I/mit/bjaspan/src/stdsrc xzwrite.c
> -- here I hit the "reload" button --
>Unloading: xzwrite.c
>Loading: getstring.o
2. Saber should either do all or none of the linking when the "run" command
is entered. I attached 8 libs; when I hit run, saber linked aganist one
of them (the 4th attached) then agaist libc.a, and died with unresolved
symbols. Using the link button then did not solve the problem. (Is
there a "link when I hit run" option that can be set?)
>Attaching: /usr/athena/lib/libzephyr.a
>Attaching: /usr/athena/lib/libcom_err.a
>Attaching: /usr/athena/lib/libkrb.a
>Attaching: /usr/athena/lib/libdes.a
>Attaching: /mit/StaffTools/vaxlib/libXaw.a
>Attaching: /mit/StaffTools/vaxlib/libXmu.a
>Attaching: /mit/StaffTools/vaxlib/libXt.a
>Attaching: /mit/StaffTools/vaxlib/libX11.a
>17 -> run
>Linking from '/usr/athena/lib/libdes.a' ... Linking completed.
>Linking from '/lib/libc.a' ... Linking completed.
>Executing: a.out
3. The first time I tried the "unload" button, it told me to "Make
Another Selection"; typing unload in the text window worked fine. Another
time, I got the following ouput from the unload button:
>4 -> unload Attaching: /usr/athena/lib/libzephyr.a
>'Attaching:' is not a loaded file.
>Detaching: /usr/athena/lib/libzephyr.a
>Unloading files linked from "/usr/athena/lib/libzephyr.a".
>5 ->
It didn't ask me to unload the other 7 libs..
4. Some random things:
a) The scrollbar is VERY slow. I managed to queue a good
minute of scrolling before I realized what was going on.
b) "X Toolkit Warning: XtRemoveInput: Input handler not found"
on exit
c) It doesn't accept (apparently any) Xt command line options
d) Sometimes the placement window text is "saber-xmanager" and
sometimes it is "XSaber-Beta". ???
e) When loading source file, it truncates the Loading: ...
line in the middle box to an arbitrary length, even if
the window is wide enough to hold the hold line.
5. It ran out of memory while loading, and put the back at the normal
prompt. But, the "quit" button just beeped at me, and when I tried to
type quit at the prompt, it let me type a 'q' and then started beeping
at me.
6. After exiting from the error caused in #5, I was unable to restart
the program. I killed just about every other process and ran unlimit,
but kept getting the following error:
>xsaber: Couldn't connect to saber: errno = 2
>xsaber: possible problems with swap space!
A ps ux revealed that there were two "saber_exec" processes running.
One died on a kill, one required a kill -9.
7. Finally, I got it to work, and (surprise!) it found a bug. The
"up" and "down" scoping buttons are a real win. (I didn't know Saber
could do that until I saw the buttons.)
