theoretical bug

[Alexander R. Pruss]

My ClieSkinner program (see http://www.zlthemes.com/Programs.php) uses 
the same method as Plucker to scan for files in VFS, namely iterate over 
the directory and call VFSFileDBInfo().  Unfortunately, two users have 
reported hangs as a result of using this method.  My hypothesis is that 
they had files in VFS that weren't Palm databases, and that 
VFSFileDBInfo() screwed up on them.  One user ended up clearing out his 
PALM\Launcher dir before I was able to fully to debug this.  For the 
second user, I had the idea of skipping all files that don't have .prc 
(or .PRC, etc.) extension.  I sent him a test version that did that, and 
it all worked.

Anyway, this is not something I have been able to duplicate.  But it 
does seem that sometimes using this VFS scan method causes problems.  My 
suggestion is to check for a .pdb or .prc extension (depending on what 
we are searching for) before calling VFSFileDBInfo().  The other 
advantage of doing this is that it would speed up the VFS scan since we 
wouldn't have to open some of the files.

I suppose, theoretically, this could cause trouble for users who store 
databases with other extensions, but I don't know if there are any such 
users.

It may be that for some mysterious reason this method works in Plucker 
but not in my code.

Alex
--
Dr. Alexander R. Pruss
Department of Philosophy
Georgetown University
Washington, DC 20057-1133  U.S.A.
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
online papers and home page: www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ap85
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