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Q113252: BUG: Viewer Setup Causes Error in SYMTAB11.C

Article: Q113252
Product(s): Miscellaneous Software Development Kits
Version(s): 2.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): 
Last Modified: 10-MAR-2000

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Multimedia Viewer Publishing Toolkit, version 2.0 
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SYMPTOMS
========

The setup script included with the Microsoft Multimedia Publishing Toolkit
version 2.0 displays the error message:

  Setup has encountered a problem.
  Please report File='COMMON\SYMTAB11.C', Line='616' to Microsoft Product
  Support Services.

CAUSE
=====

This error is generated when a setup script tries to replace a list item that is
past the end of the list using ReplaceListItem.

The setup script shipped with Viewer, TITLE.MST, expects the value returned by
GetWindowsDir() to be in uppercase letters. It contains the line:

     ReplaceListItem szExtras$, ASC(MID$(GetWindowsDir(), 1, 1)) -
           ASC("A") + 1, STR$(4096)

The MID$ function call creates a substring of length 1 and starting at position 1
of the string returned by GetWindowsDir(). This substring will be the drive
letter of the drive from which Windows was started. The ASC function call
generates the numeric ASCII code for this character. Then the numeric ASCII code
for "A" is subtracted from this number. The script expects the result of this to
be between 0 and 25, and it increments this number by 1 and uses it as an index
into the szExtras$ list, which contains 26 items. If GetWindowsDir() returns an
uppercase string, the result of the subtraction will indeed be between 0 and 25.
However, if GetWindowsDir() returns a lowercase string, the result will be out
of range.

The value returned by GetWindowsDir() would be lowercase if the PATH statement in
the user's AUTOEXEC.BAT used lowercase for the name of the Windows directory.

You can see the value that would be returned by the GetWindowsDir() function by
typing SET from an MS-DOS prompt in Windows, and checking the value of the
"windir" environment variable. This environment variable is set by Windows when
it starts up, and it has the same value as is returned by GetWindowsDir().

RESOLUTION
==========

On line 252 of TITLE.MST, change the ReplaceListItem call from

     ReplaceListItem szExtras$, ASC(MID$(GetWindowsDir(), 1, 1)) -
           ASC("A") + 1, STR$(4096)

to the following:

     ReplaceListItem szExtras$, ASC(MID$(UCASE$
           (GetWindowsDir()), 1, 1)) - ASC("A") + 1, STR$(4096)

This will capitalize the value returned from GetWindowsDir(). If the Windows
directory is on drive C, this code will subtract "A" from "C", and then add 1,
resulting in a value of 3. The szExtras$ symbol has items 1-26, one for each
possible drive letter. The value 3 is a valid item in this list.

If you are getting the SYMTAB11.C error but cannot edit the .MST file, you can
avoid the error by capitalizing the PATH statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

Additional query words: 2.00 buglist2.00

======================================================================
Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbHomeProdSearch kbHomeMMsearch kbMMViewer200
Version           : :2.0
Issue type        : kbbug

=============================================================================

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