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Is there a way to retrieve more detailed error information when OpenGL has flagged an error? I know there isn't in core OpenGL, but is there perhaps some common extension or platform- or driver-dependent way or anything at all?
My basic problem is that I have a game (written in Java with JOGL), and when people have trouble with it, which they do on certain hardware/software configurations, it can be quite hard to trace down where the root of the problem lies. For performance reasons, I can't keep calling glGetError for each command but only do so at a few points in the program, so it's kind of hard to even find what command even flagged the error to begin with. Even if I could, however, the extremely general error codes that OpenGL have don't really tell me all that much about what happened (seeing as how the manpages on the commands even describe how the various error codes are reused for sometimes quite many different actual error conditions).
It would be tremendously helpful if there were a way to find out what OpenGL command actually flagged the error, and also more details about the error that was flagged (like, if I get GL_INVALID_VALUE, what value to what argument was invalid and why?).
It seems a bit strange that drivers wouldn't provide this information, even if in a completely custom way, but looked as I have, I sure haven't found any way to find it. If it really is that they don't, is there any good reason for why that is so?
Actually, there is a feature in core OpenGL that will give you detailed debug information. But you are going to have to set your minimum version requirement pretty high to have this as a core feature.
Nevertheless, see this article -- even though it only went core in OpenGL 4.3, it existed in extension form for quite some time and it does not require any special hardware feature. So for the most part all you really need is a recent driver from NV or AMD.
I have an example of how to use this extension in an answer I wrote a while back, complete with a few utility functions to make the output easier to read. It is written in C, so I do not know how helpful it will be, but you might find something useful.
Here is the sort of output you can expect from this extension (AMD Catalyst):
OpenGL Error:
=============
Object ID: 102
Severity: Medium
Type: Performance
Source: API
Message: glDrawElements uses element index type 'GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE' that is not
optimal for the current hardware configuration; consider using
'GL_UNSIGNED_SHORT' instead.
Not only will it give you error information, but it will even give you things like performance warnings for doing something silly like using 8-bit vertex indices (which desktop GPUs do not like).
To answer another one of your questions, if you set the debug output to synchronous and install a breakpoint in your debug callback you can easily make any debugger break on an OpenGL error. If you examine the callstack you should be able to quickly identify exactly what API call generated most errors.
Here are some suggestions.
According to the man pages, glGetError returns the value of the error flag and then resets it to GL_NO_ERROR. I would use this property to track down your bug - if nothing else you can switch up where you call it and do a binary search to find where the error occurs.
I doubt calling glGetError will give you a performance hit. All it does is read back an error flag.
If you don't have the ability to test this on the specific hardware/software configurations those people have, it may be tricky. OpenGL drivers are implemented for specific devices, after all.
glGetError is good for basically saying that the previous line screwed up. That should give you a good starting point - you can look up in the man pages why that function will throw the error, rather than trying to figure it out based on its enum name.
There are other specific error functions to call, such as glGetProgramiv, and glGetFramebufferStatus, that you may want to check, as glGetError doesn't check for every type of error. IE Just because it reads clean doesn't mean another error didn't happen.
Hello,
I have a VB6 program which I only have the compiled executable file and not the source code. This program connects to a SQL Server 2000 database. I get the,
[Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no
default driver specified
error. Is there a way to know what is the connection string coded inside the VB6 program? VB6 De-compilers did not work.
You can do a weird try, might be a help that is using Cheat Engine, generally used for cheatings Facebook games. This is a nice tool that helps you reading the changing values in the memory.
What we do is :
We execute the game in FF or Chrome. Open CheatEngine and from there we select the FF or Chrome from its proces windows. Now in its home screen, you can have search option in the memory registers. What we generally do is we search for a value on screen that changes on every step. So we place the value and set the search type as exact search and clicks on new search. In the left list box , it will give you 10000's of memory addresses, but dont worry. In your next turn, check the value after chnage, now put that value and click on next scan. Now you will have lesser address, repeat it until you exactly two register, generally comes in 3-4 clicks and 4-5 retries , so it will take around 15-20 mins of your time.
I am not sure that this will work. In your case, you have to find a unique keyword like ODBC Driver Manager , why because this register or its nearby register might contain the value.
If it seems a hectic and failure process, still you can explore the CheatEngine as it is full of options and nice small small utilities. Check that out, it might be a help. Or send me its exe, i will give a try for you, if you wish.
I know this is not an appropriate answer , but this might be a help , as he is totally stucked, kindly do not downvote. As its solely his decision whether to try or not
What is the quickest way to isolate the source of an error amongst an ordered list of potential sources? For example, given a list of column mappings, and one of those column mappings is incorrect, what debugging technique would lead you to most quickly identify which mapping is invalid? (By most quickly, I mean, which approach would require the fewest compilation, load, and run cycles?)
Assume that whatever error message the database or database driver generates does not identify the name of the errant column. Sound familiar?
Hint:
The technique is similar to that which you might use to answer the question, "What number am I thinking of between 1 and 1000?", but with the fewest guesses.
You can use interpolation in some cases. I've used this successfully to isolate a bad record.
Sounds familiar, but I hate to be the one to tell you that there is no "quick" way of isolating the sources of errors. I know from my own experience that you want to be absolutely sure you've found the correct source of error before you go about resolving it, and this requires plenty of testing and tracing.
Keep adding more and more diagnostic information until I either isolate the issue, or can't add anymore. If it's my code vs. external code, I will go crazy with trace statements until I isolate the critical bit of code if I otherwise don't know where the issue is. On Windows, the SysInternals suite is my friend... especially the debug viewer. That will show any trace statements from anything running on the system that is emitting trace.
If I truly cannot get more specific information from the error source, then I will go into experimental mode... testing one small change at a time. This works best if you know you have a case that succeeds and a case that does not.
Trivial example: If I have row X that won't be inserted into the database, but I know row Y will, I will then take row Y and change one field at a time and keep inserting until row Y's values = row X's value.
If you really are stumped at where the issue is coming from, time to dust off your Google-fu skills. Someone has probably run into the same problem and posted a question to a forum somewhere. Of course, that's what SO is for too.
You're the human... be more stubborn than the computer!
I was wondering what the general consensus on error messages was. How detailed should they be?
I've worked on projects where there was a different error message for entering a number that was too big, too small, had a decimal, was a string, etc. That was quite nice for the user as they knew exactly where things went wrong, but the error handling code started to rival the actual business logic in size, and started to develop some of its own bugs.
On the other side I've worked on a project where you'd get very generic errors such as
COMPILE FAILED REASON 3
Which needless to say was almost entirely useless as reason 3 turned out to mean a link error.
So where is the middle ground? How do I know if I've added descriptive enough error messages? How do I know if the user will be able to understand where they've gone wrong?
There are two possible target audiences for an error message, the user, and the developer.
One should generally have the message target the user.
o what is the cause of the problem.
o why the program can't work around the problem
o what the user can do to work around the problem.
o how to report the problem.
If the problem is to be reported, the report should include as much program context information as possible.
o module name
o function name
o line number
o variables of interest in the general area of the problem
o maybe even a core dump.
Target the correct audience.
You should communicate what happened, and what the user's options are, in as few words as possible. The longer the error message is, the less likely the user is to read it. By the same token, short error messages are cryptic and useless. There's a sweet spot in terms of length, and it's different for every situation.
Too short:
Invalid input.
Too long:
Please enter a correctly formatted IP address, such as 192.168.0.1. An IP address is a number used to identify your computer on a network.
Just right:
Please enter a valid IP address.
As far as code bloat is concerned, if a little extra code will prevent a user from calling support or getting frustraited, then it's a good investment.
There are two types of error messages: Those that will be seen by the user and those that'll be seen by the programmer.
"How do I know if the user will be able to understand where they've gone wrong?"
I'm assuming that those messages are only going to be seen by the user, and not a very technical one, and COMPILE FAILED REASON 3 is not a typical end-user error message. It's something that the programmer will see(the user doesn't usually compile things).
So, if it's the user that'll see it:
Provide a short "This is an error message"("Ops! Something went wrong!", etc.)
Provide a small generic description of the error ("The site you're trying to connect to seems to be unavailable"/"You don't seem to have enough permissions to perform the XYZ task"/etc.)
Add a "Details>>" button, in case your user happens to understand computers well, including detailed information(exception stack trace, error code, etc.)
Finally, provide some simple and understandable commands for the user ("Try again", "Cancel", etc.)
The real question about error messages is if they should even be displayed. A lot of error messages are presented to a user but there is NO WAY for them to correct them.
As long as there is a way to correct the error then give enough information to the user that will allow them to correct it on their own. If they are not able to correct it on their own is there any reason to tell them the technical reason for the crash? No just log it to a file for troubleshooting later.
As detailed as they need to be ;)
I know it sounds like a smart ass answer but so much of this depends on your target audience and the type of error. For errors caused by invalid user entry, you could show them what constitutes a valid entry. For errors that the user can't control, a generic "we're working on it" type message might do.
I agree with Jon B's comments regarding length as well.
Error messages should be detailed, but clear. This can be achieved by combining error messages from multiple levels:
Failed to save the image
Permission denied: /foo.jpg
Here we have two levels. There can be more. First we tell the big picture and then we tell the details. The order is such that first we have the part understood by most and then the part less people understand, but both can still be visible.
Additionally there could be a fix suggestion.
I would err on the side of more detail, but I think you answered your own question. To avoid the bloat in code then provide useful information in the code/error message but you can give more details in the documentation perhaps or with help files or FAQ.
having too little information is worse in my opinion.
If you are using a language with rich introspection or other capabilities, a log witht he line that failed a check would be useful. The user can then forward to tech support or otherwise get detailed information and this is not additional code bloat, but using your own code to provide information.
We are changing some of the text for our old, badly written error messages. What are some resources for best practices on writing good error messages (specifically for Windows XP/Vista).
In terms of wording your error messages, I recommend referring to the following style guides for Windows applications:
Windows user experience guidelines, and specifically the section on error messages here.
Microsoft Manual of Style
The ultimate best practice is to prevent the user from causing errors in the first place.
Don't tell users anything they don't care about; error code 5064 doesn't mean a thing to anyone. Don't tell them they did something wrong; disallow it in the first place. Don't blame them, especially not for mistakes your software made. Above all, when there is a problem, tell them how to fix it so they can move on and get some work done.
A good error message should:
Be unobtrusive (no blue-screen or yellow-screen of death)
Give the user direction to correct the problem (on their own if possible, or who to contact for help)
Hide useless, esoteric programmer nonsense ( don't say, "a null reference exception occurred on line 45")
Be descriptive without being verbose. Just enough information to tell the user what they need to know and nothing more.
One thing I've started to do is to generate a unique number that I display in the error message and write to the log file so I can find the error in the log when the user sends me a screenshot or calls and says, "I got an error. It says my reference number is 0988-7634"
For security reasons, don't provide internal system information that the user does not need.
Trivial example: when failing to login, don't tell the user if the username is wrong or the password is wrong; this will only help the attacker to brute force the system. Instead, just say "Username/Password combination is invalid" or something like that.
Always include suggestions to Remedy the error.
Try to figure out a way to write your software so it corrects the problem for them.
For any user input (strings, filenames, values, etc), always display the erroneous value with delimiters around it (quotes, brackets, etc). e.g.
The filename you entered could not be found: "somefile.txt"
This helps to show any whitespace/carriage returns that may have sneaked in and greatly reduces troubleshooting and frustration.
Avoid identical error messages coming from different places; parametrize with file:line if possible, or use other context that lets you, the developer, uniquely identify where the error occurred.
Design the mechanism to allow easy localization, especially if it is a commercial product.
If the error messages are user-visible, make them complete, meaningful sentences that don't assume intimate knowledge of the code; remember, you're always too close to the problem -- the user is not. If possible, give the user guidance on how to proceed, who to contact, etc.
Every error should have a message if possible; if not, then try and make sure that all error-unwind paths eventually reach an error message that sheds light on what happened.
I'm sure there will be other good answers here...
Shorter messages may actually be read.
The longer your error message, the less the user will read. That being said, try to refactor the code so you can eliminate exceptions if there is an obvious response. Try to only have exceptions that happen based on things beyond your user or your code's control.
The best exception message is the one you never have to display.
Error handling is always better than error reporting, but since you are retrofitting the error messages and not necessarily the code here's a couple of suggestions:
Users want solutions, not problems. Help them know what to do after an error, even if the message is as simple as "Please close the current window and retry your action."
I am also a big fan of centralized logging of errors. Make sure the log is both human and computer scanable. Users don't always let you know what problems they are having, especially if they can be 'worked around', so the log can help you know what things need fixed.
If you can control the error dialog easily, having a dialog which shows a nice, readable message with a 'details' button to show the error number, trace, etc. can be a big help for real-time problem solving as well.
Support for multilanguage applies for all kinds of messages, but tends to be forgotten in the case of error messages.
I would second not telling the user useless esoteric information like numeric error codes. I would follow that up however by saying to definitely log that information for troubleshooting by more technically savvy people.