RE: [boost] Re: Runtime error reporting

From: David Abrahams (abrahams_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-03-21 10:54:28

This is probably straying into platform-specific irrelevancies, but I would
be shocked if (despite the documentation) these functions could not fail due
to low memory.

-Dave

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Aleksey Gurtovoy [mailto:alexy_at_[hidden]]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2001 10:09 AM
> To: 'boost_at_[hidden]'
> Subject: RE: [boost] Re: Runtime error reporting
>
>
> Dave Abrahams wrote:
> > I don't understand your assertion**The OpenClipboard docs,
> > for example, seem to put no restriction on which errors can
> > be reported.
>
> It does specify under what circumstances the function can fail
> (ignoring any
> kind of misuse), and the only situation when it can happen is "if another
> window has the clipboard open", which I consider to be a
> programmer's error.
>
>
> > That seems to
> > indicate that it can report out-of-memory or any number of
> > other errors.
>
> As with any written document, there are several ways to interpret the
> platform SDK documentation, and there are a few things one need to know in
> order to understand the common interpretation. If you are talking about
> "Return Values" clause, then the only thing I can say about it is
> that it's
> pretty much useless for determining the particular function's
> contract. For
> most of Win32 API functions this paragraph is always the same:
>
>   If the function succeeds, the return value is nonzero.
>   If the function fails, the return value is zero. To get extended error
> information, call GetLastError.
>
> and all it says is that there is no guarantee that the function will never
> fail, 'cause user can always misuse it by providing invalid arguments,
> calling it at inappropriate time, calling it several times with the same
> arguments etc. The real requirements for the function call to be succeeded
> (and sources of possible the internal failures), if any, are
> usually listed
> in the "Remarks" section.
>
> > In addition, I would not expect any guarantee that future OS
> > versions would limit error returns to reporting usage errors.
> >
>
> Not that I claimed that it is limited to such errors now. I said
> "given the
> calling sequence", and I implied that citied code fragment is the
> only place
> in the system where clipboard is operated by API-level code.
>
>
> Aleksey
>
>
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