Copyright: ®1992-1993 Stedy Software and Systems.


Contents
Dr. Watson's Apprentice v3.0e

Copyright 1992-1993 Stedy Software and Systems.  All Rights Reserved.

Dr. Watson Ini 	Product Support

For Help on Help, Press F1


Glossary
Product Support Services

You can reach Stedy Software and Systems Product Support Services between 9:00 A.M. and 7:00 P.M. Eastern time, Monday through Saturday.

For setup and installation, how-to assistance and in-depth support for advanced programming issues, call (603) 626 - 0125.

When you call, you should be at your computer and have the appropriate product documentation at hand. Be prepared to give the following information:

The product version number.

The type of hardware you are using.

The exact wording of any messages that appear on your screen.

What happened and what you were doing when the problem occurred.

How you tried to solve the problem.


Click

To press and release a mouse button in one nonstop motion.


Dialog box

A box that displays the available command options for you to review or change.


Drag

To hold down the mouse button while moving the mouse.


Drag & Drop

A Drag & Drop operation involves two possible objects: SOURCE and TARGET.

To drag, select a SOURCE object by pointing at it with your mouse or other pointing device. Press the mouse button while the pointer is over the SOURCE object and, (without releasing the mouse button), move the object to a new location on the screen. When you drag a SOURCE object, the pointer will change to let you know that you are in a Drag & Drop operation, and will change accordingly when over different TARGET objects on the screen. This is a visual representation of the TARGET accepting or rejecting the Drag & Drop SOURCE object.


Dr. Watson Log

The Dr. Watson Log is the text file where Dr. Watson 0.80 stores current system information when an application fails. You, (and the software author), can use this information to determine the cause and steps needed to correct the problem.

Note:  Dr.Watson is Copyright 1992 Microsoft Corporation.  All inquiries should be directed accordingly.


Font

The general shapes for a set of characters. Each font has a name with which you can select the font and apply it to text. Arial and Times Roman are examples of fonts.


Fonts

This command button will display the FONT dialog box . Choose the font  characteristics for the main form text box .


List/Combo box

Part of a dialog box that contains a list of valid selections for an option. Some list boxes stay the same size; others drop down (Combo) to display the list of items.


Start / Stop Groups

Dr. Watson will insert a START log entry and a STOP log entry every time the program is activated and/or de-activated accordingly. The START date is listed in a combo box. You can select the START date of the GPF's you want to view. This will then fill the GPF combo box with the GPF date header for further selection.


Exit

 Click here to close the Dr. Watson Log and exit the program.


Command Buttons

Open Log 	 Print 	Configure       Help        About


Text Box

 The text box displays the Dr. Watson Log text of the selected section. Select the section with the Log Section Command Buttons.


GPF Combo box

All GPF's that occurred during the start/stop dates will be listed in the GPF combo box. The total number of GPF's will be indicated to the left. If you have a GPF selected, you can drag it to the delete icon [image] or archive icon [image], or drag it to the print command button.


About...

The About Dialog Box shows copyright, author, and basic system information.


Help

Click or drag here for help on Dr. Waston's Apprentice.


Help

Click here for help on configuring Dr. Waston's Apprentice.


Help

Click here for help on printing inside Dr. Waston's Apprentice.


Help

Click here for help on the Dr. Waston Ini file.


OK

Click here to proceed with function.


Print

Click here to proceed with the print log function.


Cancel/Exit

Click here to cancel function and exit the dialog box .


Delete Icon

By dragging the GPF combo box, ( [image]), of an error report to the Delete Icon ( [image]), you can delete that log entry...

If you double click  on the Delete Icon, the dialog box  on the left will appear. This enables you to delete not only the current selection (currently displayed), but the entire log file or START/STOP groups  as well.

After the delete process completes, a message box will appear if it was not successfull.


Archive Icon

By dragging the GPF combo box, ( [image]), of an error report to the Archive Icon ( [image]), you can archive that log entry...

If you double click  on the Archive Icon, the dialog box  on the left will appear. This enables you to archive not only the current selection (currently displayed), but the entire log file as well. You can also view a previously archived file.

If creating or viewing an archive, you will be prompted for a filename. After the arc/unachive process, a message box will appear to let you know if it was successfull, and the compression percent where appropriate.


Log Section Command Buttons

By clicking on the command buttons, the associated text will be displayed in the text box. If the selected GPF entry does not contain information for a particular log section, the corresponding section button will be disabled and the print dialog box will be adjusted also.

Log Sections...

General Information

CPU Registers

32 Bit Registers

System Information

Stack Dump

Tasks...


Configure

The CONFIGURE dialog box allows you to choose and set certain characteristics and functions of Dr. Watson's Apprentice.


Sound

Turn the sound on or off during the execution of Dr. Watson's Apprentice.


Sound Support

If your computer is MPC ready, use Multimedia drivers, if not, use dsound.dll support.The DSOUND.DLL will allow WAV files to be played through your PC speaker.


Volume

Set the sound volume. (For DSOUND.DLL only!)


Frequency

Set the sound playback speed. (For DSOUND.DLL only!)


Test

Test the sound settings. (For both MULTIMEDIA and DSOUND.DLL support.)


Open Log

To open the log file, click  on OPEN LOG. The command button icon will change to an open file cabinet and the caption will change to read "CLOSE LOG". The START drop down combo list  will be filled with all starting log entry dates, if any. The led will change to green and the label below it will show the number of entries. If there are no entries, the led will stay red. When you choose a stating log date, the GPF drop down ccombo list  will be filled with the GPF entry string, if any. The GPF led, and label below it, react the same as the START indicators.


Print

The PRINT dialog box  allows you to print the entire log, the entire currently selected GPF entry, or a choice of the available sections for the currently selected GPF entry.

See also:  Log Selection Command Buttons


Default Printer

This area shows the default printer (the printer to which your documents are automatically sent when you print from an application).

To specify a default printer, choose an installed printer from the combo list box and it will be set as the 'default printer'.


Setup

Because the printing options are specific to each printer driver, the options in the settings dialog box  vary, depending on the selected printer. Windows automatically uses the settings that work with your printer, most of the time.

If you want to change the settings and need more information, while in the settings dialog box, click  on the HELP command button or press F1 for help on setting up your printer.


Log Selection

Entire Log: prints the entire Dr. Watson Log.

The following sections may or may not be available to print,,,

General Information

CPU Registers

32 Bit Registers

System Information

Stack Dump

Tasks...

Note: if you choose Entire Log, you cannot add other log sections.


Dr. Watson Ini

Microsoft Windows Dr. Watson 0.80 is a diagnostic tool for the Microsoft Windows operating system. It detects system and application failures caused by Windows applications and can store information in a disk file. This file can help you find and fix problems in your applications.

Only a single instance of Dr. Watson can be run at a time. Dr. Watson uses the dynamic-link library TOOLHELP.DLL, so it runs only in standard or 386 enhanced mode. Dr. Watson cannot trap faults in a  Windows MS-DOS session.

You can configure Dr. Watson to meet your needs by including settings for any of the following entries in the [Dr. Watson] section of your WIN.INI file. This is done automatically for the user with Dr. Watson's Apprentice v3.0b or higher.


The DisLen Entry

The DisLen entry controls how many instructions are disassembled in stack traces and the disassembly portion of the failure report.

The default value is 8.


The DisStack Entry

The DisStack entry controls how many levels back on the stack are to be disassembled.

The default value is 2


The GPContinue Entry

One of the most advanced features of Dr. Watson enables an application to continue even after a general protection (GP) fault occurs. Because a GP fault means that a bug has been encountered, continuing is dangerous. However, some application developers requested the ability to continue running an application even after a GP fault. If the GPContinue entry is used, Dr. Watson performs the following tests when a GP fault occurs. If each of the following four conditions is true, Dr. Watson allows the application to continue:

1	Bit 0 of GPContinue is set.

2	The faulting instruction is one that can be allowed to continue.

The following example, which happens to be beyond the end of a segment, would be allowed to continue:  mov     ax,[ffff]

The following instruction, which involves an invalid address, would not be allowed to proceed:  jmp     seg:offs

3	The fault is not in KERNEL or USER. (Or the fault is in KERNEL or USER, and you have set the appropriate bit in the GPContinue value to continue in spite of the risk.)

4	The user wants to continue. Dr. Watson displays the following dialog box so that the user can decide.

If the user chooses the Close button, an error message box appears. Although it is very risky, you can also allow continuation in KERNEL or USER by setting GPContinue as required. Following are the bits and values for the GPContinue entry:

Bit	Value	Meaning

0	1	Allow continuation. (This is the default setting.)

1	2	Write only three-line reports.

2	4	Continue even if the fault is in KERNEL.

3	8	Continue even if the fault is in USER.


The LogFile Entry

By default, the Dr. Watson log file is named DRWATSON.LOG and placed in the Windows directory. The filename can be changed to any valid filename, even the name of a printer or debugging terminal.

For example, to write to a terminal on COM1, use COM1.


The ShowInfo Entry

Some parts of the Dr. Watson failure report are disabled by default. They can be enabled with the ShowInfo entry. Following are the values you can set to enable parts of the failure report:

Value	Meaning

disassembly	Enable separate disassembly of the fault address.

errorlog	Enable error logging.

locals	Enable stack dump of local variable and parameter values.

modules	Enable list of all loaded modules, including (DLLs) and font files.

paramlog	Enable parameter-validation error logging.

sound	Enable audible warnings.

Each of the ShowInfo values can be abbreviated to its first three letters. The following example sets all six values for the ShowInfo entry, enabling those six parts of the failure report:

ShowInfo=dis err loc mod par sou


The SkipInfo Entry

The SkipInfo entry controls which parts of the failure report are actually written to disk. Following are the values you can set to disable parts of the failure report:

Value	Meaning

32bitregs	Disable values of 32-bit registers.

clues	Disable the dialog box titled "Dr. Watson's Clues."

info	Disable system information.

registers	Disable 16-bit registers.

segments	Disable segment contents, base addresses, length, and flags.

stack	Disable stack backtrace.

summary	Disable four-line summary at beginning of error report.

tasks	Disable list of all active tasks (running applications).

time	Disable Dr. Watson start and stop times.

Each of the SkipInfo values can be abbreviated to its first three letters. The following example disables the Dr. Watson's Clues dialog box and the stack backtrace:

SkipInfo=clu sta


The TrapZero Entry

By default, Dr. Watson does not trap divide overflow exceptions, because many applications provide their own handling. The TrapZero entry can be used to enable trapping of divide overflow exceptions.