Bug is easy to confirm, who shall I inform about it?

Hello Ed Sweetman,
Thursday, September 05, 2002, 9:24:52 PM, you wrote:

>> Not being able to even start the player is a very serious issue. In
>> Bugzilla this would be called a "blocker", an even worse bug than a
>> "critical" one.
>
> some people can load it, you cant. This "bug" has no data to back up
> why it's happening thus cant even be considered a bug. It's an issue.

Why haven't you told that at once? You want data to back up the bug? No
problem. That's why Windows has a little tool named Dr. Watson that will
not just allow programs to crash like they usually do in Windows, but it
also tells you exactly why the program crashed and where in the program
code it crashed. It is bundled with Win98 or later (not sure if it were
removed in Win2K/XP again).

| Zinf is trying to use a NULL pointer
|
| Module: ZINF.EXE
| Description: Zinf
| Version: 2.2.0.7
| Product: Zinf Application
| Company: Zinf Open Source Development Effort


This is now followed by the current processor state, a pretty long
disambler output that shows the line where the access happened and
several lines before and after this line, followed by a stack trace, a
full stack dump, as well as description about the current state of the
Windows kernel and so on (I think it can produce a full core dump if one
wishes).

Trying to access a NULL pointer sounds pretty much like a bug to me, as
this pointer shouldn't have been NULL when accessed for the first time
in the source code. Which either means someone forgot to initialize it
or it was initialized with the return value of some function and the
case that this function may actually return NULL as value and thus extra
"error handling" is necessary was simply overlooked by the developers.


So what mailing list am I taking this to? Support or Devel mailing list?
And shall I include all that disambler output and a full stack dump,
too? Or is there someone I can mail directly, who is responsible for the
Windows build?

>> Then how about pulling the latest version from it, compiling it and
>> uploading it to Zinf.org page or to the Sourceforge one?
>
> That takes time and experience with the windows installer stuff. Both
> things i dont like to be doing in windows. Perhaps a windows developer
> would like to help you out until the release version.

Installer? Come on, Windows users are not all clueless computer newbies.
I'm only using Windows because the software I like doesn't exist for
Linux and because not all my hardware is working up to 100%
functionality, plain and simple. So I really need no stinking installer.
50% of all software I have installed comes out of a ZIP file and
installation means "copy the content of the ZIP file where you like it
to be, make shortcuts if you like and associate files yourself as you
like". I hate installers, they do all kind of stuff (copying files where
they want, add/alter/remove registry entries and change file
associations) and that all without my permission. I hate nothing more
than if my tweaked file associations (where every file can be opened
with a number of tools when getting right-clicked and where I selected a
custom icon, add custom actions, etc.) are overwritten and hours of
customization work are gone within a second. And I don't need an
de-installer either. The best tools are de-installed by removing their
program directory and that's it.

-- 
Best regards,
 TGOS



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