Let's just keep this between you and me, OK? While developing the next version of Delphi we encountered a defect in the editor kernel dll that could cause some instability if one happen to, ahem, use a different memory manager dll (borlndmm.dll) (cough...FastMM4...cough)... You can get the informally fixed editor kernel dll here. Simply download this file and unzip it. Go to the <D2005 install>bin folder and rename boreditu.dll to something like boreditu.dll.save. Then copy the new boreditu.dll to this folder... oh, and of course you shouldn't be running D2005 when doing this.
Remember this is just between us friends... This is not an official support channel, nor will I have the bandwidth to answer any questions regarding this. If this fixes some issues you may be having with D2005, then great. If not, see below. Basically, you should see fewer random editor kernel AVs. This doesn't fix the random editor kernel “amount >= dest - startDest“ assertions some folks had been reporting. That is a different issue.
I'd like to thank, Delphi user and ex-Borlander extraordinaire, Randy Magruder, for his help in informally testing this this little patch. So if it blows up on you, you can blame him... :-). However, if it works for you.. oh.. well.. you can still blame him, I suppose...
I'm a dead man aren't I? :)
ReplyDeleteI appreciate it when you guys make unofficial patches available. What would be very nice IMO is if someone there would make an "Official list of links to Unofficial patches". There seem to be a number of them floating around on various personal websites of Borland and TeamB people.
ReplyDeleteInstead of "unofficial patches", why doesn't Borland follow MS' lead and release "hotfixes": They can be official but clearly marked as "Use At Your Own Risk". This way we all win: Customers affected by an issue may get a fix in a timely fashion, Borland gets love from their customers and free testing for the next SP/Update.
ReplyDeleteThere is no good reason (commercially or ethically) for Borland to effectively "sit on" important fixes because no Update is scheduled...
Any idea if the "amount >= dest - startDest" thing will be fixed? I encountered it twice within 5 minutes yesterday. Fortunately I've not seen it since then, but I did see it before that as well. Anyway, I'm not really expecting and answer from you on this, but I wanted to let you know that you can add me to the list of people experiencing this "assertion" problem- without using any alternative memory managers BTW... :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you, thank you !!!
ReplyDeleteKeep them coming ;)
To Michael Marshall,
ReplyDeleteYou're forgetting we live in a society where people sue McDonalds if they spill their hot coffee. Disclaimer or not, I'd personally be loathe to label ANYTHING as 'official' if it hadn't gone through the QA process and been signed off on. (As much as I'd like to think my testing would have flushed out any problems, see response #1 to the blog! )
MS, on the other hand, is a big powerful company with a big powerful legal department -- e.g. probably not as risky for them to slip out 'official/hotfixes' to those who want them. This is just a theory of mine, of course...but when something hasn't gone through due diligence, I personally think there's nothing wrong with an unofficial patch to help a particular situation.
Randy
yes of course
ReplyDeleteNow i see that after a month without dropping a line into the blog, and I visiting it every day, it is worth keeping visiting your blog. :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you..
I hope, the whole stuff is included in DeXter!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteMr Magruder,
ReplyDeletethe way I see it, Borland has a serious credibility problem with its customers: D7 had serious issues which were effectively ignored - SP1 was just too little too late. D2005, after no less than three updates, still has many serious issues listed in QC which apparently will not be fixed until D2006.
With this history, why would anyone in their right mind buy D2006? I've been using Delphi for years and am a huge fan, and _I_ am thinking twice about upgrading! Imagine how many other users may be considering a move away from Delphi, and how many potential Delphi users have been lost because of the serious quality issues in D7/D2005. Just look at the Borland newsgroups for supporting evidence...
My hotfix proposal, while not perfect, would go a long way towards addressing this quality issue. As for the legal issues you quite reasonably raise, I'm sure Borland's lawyers can address them!
Borland needs to much time to fix smallest bugs!
ReplyDeleteMichael,
ReplyDeleteTrue, but MS typically rolls their hotfixes into updates and service packs. (Anyone notice how they finally put a filter on add/remove programs so you could hide the inifinte # of auto-downloaded security 'updates'?
Point is, whether you want to call it a hotfix or an informal dll to help, the way I see it is that those of us who aren't all that risk averse get to play with it and see that it improves things, and the feedback (or lack thereof) on it will help Borland determine whether this goes into an Update 4 (assuming at some point they do one, and no I don't have any idea whether that's planned or not). I think the thing with a hotfix is the way MS would define it as being is that it has gone through a QA cycle to ensure that it addresses the bug and most likely does not introduce new ones. I don't think the DLL Allen is mentioning has gone through enough testing for him to make that warranty, so I'd hate for him to put any official title on it, lest people assume things about it that are not true.
Maybe we're all just guinea pigs on this DLL, which for me personally is fine because I want to help in any way I can. Some people would rather wait and listen to see whether it is really stable for downloading it. The level of informal-ness is great and much needed.
As a way of offering to share the peace pipe with you, I would agree that anything that we try out informally SHOULD at some point be deemed safe to put Borland's name behind and rolled into hot fixes and updates.
Randy
It's interesting for customers that Borland don't want to put their name on some kind of hotfixes but they can make charges for Delphi 2005 which is full of bugs, almost like some beta software.
ReplyDeleteAre there other fixes in this dll too??? It seems that since updating the floating designer works MUCH better with dual monitors.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't be happier about this patch. My D2005 IDE is now rock solid and FAST !
ReplyDeleteYou might be interested to know that this post didn't make it into the main Borland blog feed at http://blogs.codegear.com/MainFeed.aspx
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought it was because of the secret nature of the post, but then I noticed a few others of your posts didn't make it either.
I am subscribed at that level because I want to read everyone's posts. I only found this one because someone else commented about it (Joe White I think).
OK, a number of your posts, including this one are not showing up on http://blogs.codegear.com/ either.
ReplyDeleteWell, I just had my first "amount >= dest - startDest" exception. And this was after applying all three of the secret updates. The lastest was the replacement to Pierre's patch.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this.
ReplyDeleteBut as a client I think it is too late.
I used D3 for a long time and then D5.
I had to wait for SP 3 of D6 to be able to use it (please refer to the COM and Variants unit problem to understand why). That really upset me!
D7 - for which I had to wait for SP 1 (or should I say the first non beta release?) - is still not able to handle gracefully COM objects. E.g. I have to continue to use the EventSinkImp app that many of you know about I am sure and the TlbImp of D6! 10 years after COM was invented, Delphi still has some major problems with the technology!
I tested D8 and C#Builder and did not buy them. When D2005 was shipped out I did not even installed the Trial CD given that I had decided to wait for SP XXX.
Now I am fed up and I use D7 for Win32 - since it is still far better than VB or VC++ for the app I need to dev - and VS.Net C# for .Net. For my Delphi app I have to replace the default MM by another one such as BucketMM or FastMM because Borland does not even ship a good MM.
Sadly enough I do not think I will buy another borland product again. The reason is simple: Since D5 the products have been consistently shipped in a pre-Beta like version.
Jason,
ReplyDeleteI certainly hope that the frequency of encountering that assertion has dropped significantly. I never claimed that all cases were fixed by these patches. In fact I'm sure there is at least one other case lurking in there. *Any* help in finding a reproducable case for this would be mucho appreciated. QC is your friend..
Michael,
ReplyDeleteI'm certainly sorry to hear about your troubles with Delphi. I'm not going to spout excuses or empty platitudes here, but merely say that we, on the R&D team, have listened and are taking this kind of feedback to heart. I really do hope that we can in some way regain your trust and loyalty. These "informal" patches are just my own rogue way of helping out. FWIW, my loyalty is to the Delphi product, the Delphi team and her customers.
Allen Bauer,
ReplyDeleteYes well I am truly saddened as well because the Delphi community is great, the VCL (and all the other non visual classes such as registry, Thread, etc) for Win32 is a Gem. But I had so many disappointment and frustations - especially with COM and what I call the "BPL hell" - that I have started to migrate to C# with which I will get all the MS non-sense such as migrating from Framework 1 to 1.1 and then to 2, etc... We know that MS is doing an appalling job by breaking everything between 2 versions. That was one of the Delphi strengths. An easy migration.
I continue to think that for the Win32 platform Delphi 5, 6 and 7 are great. I continue to use them and to recommend them for some specific apps.
The thing is I would have bought for all our developpers D2005 if that was not the very bad publicity you got by shipping products not ready for release without ever getting a stable version in the meantime.
The fault is not the dev ones. In a way I am pleased that some top head rolled at Borland recently. I hope that means we will no longer get the non sense inter-related, inter bugged product but good independant product that work.
There is a market for Delphi. But not for a buggy one.
Allen should start his own company and call it "Rogue Way Software"
ReplyDelete<Gd&R>
Great to have those little patches - we just need more of them. I've been getting all three - sometimes 5 times an hour.
ReplyDeleteAs for the IDE - a pity about the bugs, it is an improvement, but an IDE that crashes about 10 times a day, is of not much use.
We have stopped buying Delphi (since D7) as a result of the IDE stability issues and are moving to VS & C#. I have the only copy here on maintenance. Hence have been evaluating D2005 for stability - which it fails. I did have all 3 personalities loaded - and then it crashed in under 10 minutes everytime - with a Win32 project (500+ units). Now with only Win32 configured it is at least just usable.
Anything to help is greatly appreciated.
Randy Magruder, If you recognize my name, please contact me at OH@griffinandgriffin.com
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ReplyDelete