XCMD Limitations

[Ben Rubinstein]

on 25/10/02 5:56 pm, Scott Raney wrote

> here's the list directly out of the engine source:
> xreqSendCardMessage
> xreqEvalExpr
> xreqStringLength
> xreqStringMatch
> xreqSendHCMessage
> xreqZeroBytes
> xreqPasToZero
> xreqZeroToPas
> xreqStrToLong
> xreqStrToNum:
> xreqStrToBool
> xreqStrToExt
> xreqLongToStr
> xreqNumToStr
> xreqNumToHex
> xreqBoolToStr
> xreqExtToStr
> xreqGetGlobal
> xreqSetGlobal
> xreqGetFieldByName
> xreqGetFieldByNum
> xreqGetFieldByID
> xreqSetFieldByName
> xreqSetFieldByNum
> xreqSetFieldByID
> xreqStringEqual
> xreqReturnToPas
> xreqScanToReturn
> xreqScanToZero
> 
> You can also find this list in the file "HyperXCmd.h" if you can find
> that file for HC 1.2 or earlier.
Thanks - diligent Googling eventually turned it an old version of
HyperXCmd.h, but it's even better to have the list direct from the source's
mouth (so to speak)


>> b) if the engine handled an unsupported callback more gracefully.
> 
> It does what the API spec specifies, which is to return xresNotImp for
> unsupported functions.  Of course you probably won't find too many
> externals that handle this correctly given that so few of them were
> ever tested with anything other than HC.

Mea culpa - I confess I've never ever checked for this, in a decade of
writing HC externals...

> Debugging externals is a nightmare in the best of cases.  Debugging
> where you're intimate with the details of neither the host nor the
> external borders on hopeless.  About the only recommendation I have
> for working through this is to do your development on OS X where at
> least you can answer your email while you're waiting for your classic
> box to reboot ;-)

Thanks!  At least in this case I was intimate with the external.  And next
time I'll know where to go looking.
 
Cheers,

  Ben Rubinstein               |  Email: benr_mc at cogapp.com
  Cognitive Applications Ltd   |  Phone: +44 (0)1273-821600
  http://www.cogapp.com        |  Fax  : +44 (0)1273-728866

PS - apologies to the list if a mail my mouse finger slipped on, which
simply repeats the whole of Scott's message, gets through the moderator.