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Author Topic:   Error messages===>
Mega posted 12-11-2001 13:54 GMT     
I'm betting that a good number of people requesting help here are confused by one of those bizarre error messages that Quest keeps showing. I vote that somebody with lots of experience should create some sort of "error message database" to tell us just what these things are saying.

For example, the 'Runtime error 9: out of bounds' or the 'Runtime error 6: overflow' -- both of which seem to pop up at the most unexpected times.

Or my personal favorite (don't know if anyone else has seen this one), whenever I go to "Game properties" in QDK, I get 'Runtime error 5: invalid procedure call or argument'. This only happens in my file, all others work fine.

Alex posted 12-11-2001 23:39 GMT          
You shouldn't really ever see these messages. If you let me know when they happen I can get Quest to tell you something more helpful.
carlii posted 13-11-2001 08:17 GMT          
I so agree with you!
I have seen run-time errors up to no. 380!
I was just thinking today what a good tool it would be to put in this next version of Quest, ie. make a error index where you can look up the error you receive and you will be able to fix it by reading the information supplied. Omg just typing this I think of what a GREAT idea that is! Come on Alex! :D
Alex posted 13-11-2001 18:19 GMT          
Errors like run-time error 5 can occur for a whole number of reasons, usually due to bugs in Quest code. To write some kind of "error index" I'd have to know exactly what could cause these errors, and if I knew that I could fix them (if they're my bugs) or print more helpful messages (if they're your bugs).
Mega posted 13-11-2001 21:25 GMT          
Right, but each one is only caused by certain KINDS of bugs. For instance, trying to access a variable, room, or object that doesn't exist, etc. If we knew what to look for in general for each one, we might be able to track down the specific problem.

The 'Runtime error 5' appears whenever I open my code in QDK, and choose the menu option "Game: properties". Since this only seems to happen with my code (not with any I've downloaded, or even with little test programs that I made), something in my game must be messing it up. What areas of the code might be doing this? The game definition? Synonyms? Procedures? Plz tell me what areas of the code are potential sources, and I'll send those parts to you (I don't want to send the whole thing, since somebody may actually want to PLAY this game someday :-)

Mega posted 13-11-2001 21:32 GMT          
Scratch that. I just took a quick look at the 'startscript' block, and it suddenly hit me what I was doing wrong. I had the code:

if ( $loadmethod$ = normal ) then
msg <Intro text>

I'm so used to coding C++ (which ignores whitespace), that I didn't even realize that this 2-line command was what was causing an error! All this time, it was something so simple I could kick myself! :-)

Pikaflare posted 13-11-2001 21:39 GMT          
I get an overflow error all the time with librarys and stuff for The Dark Project. If I post the library will someone be able to help me with this "bug" or whatever it is?

Maxpowr

Alex posted 14-11-2001 18:07 GMT          
Overflow errors are often caused when you've not got the right number of braces matching (e.g. too many "{", not enough "}").

As for other kinds of errors like error 5, there's a huge number of reasons that you might experience 'em, the vast majority of which I don't know about.