Error: Illegal Opcode:237

dBASE PLUS 2.61.3 XP Pro

Does anyone have any idea what could cause this error - or what it
means. The line it points to is the start of a  function . The
datamodule has been running okay for years

Thanks

Hi Frank,

> Does anyone have any idea what could cause this error - or what it
> means. The line it points to is the start of a  function . The
> datamodule has been running okay for years

Illegal Opcode: 237 is a dBASE error indicating that  somehow the dBASE
virtual machine interpreter
was given an invalid instruction to execute.

In other words, the compiled dBASE object code that was being executed
contained an invalid instruction.

This can only be caused by one of the following:
  - Somehow the dBASE Compiler built an object file that contained invalid
instructions without triggering
   a compile time error.   This seems very unlikely to me - but maybe
there's a way to do this.

 - The object file became damaged at some point in time after it was
created.  This can be due to
   problems with a hard drive or with the file systems on the drive becoming
damaged.

 - The RAM into which the object file was loaded was somehow damaged or
corrupted while running
    the program.  Either the RAM itself is not working properly OR something
in your program or in other
   software running on the customer's computer is somehow writing incorrect
data to the memory
   holding the instructions that are triggering the error.

Please report back if you are able to pinpoint the cause of the problem any
more specifically.

- Marty -

Martin Kay
dataBased Intelligence, Inc.

Marty Kay wrote:

> Illegal Opcode: 237 is a dBASE error indicating that  somehow the dBASE
> virtual machine interpreter
> was given an invalid instruction to execute.

> Please report back if you are able to pinpoint the cause of the problem
any
> more specifically.

Here is a bug report I made on 7 April 2003:

"
I have spend a sunny afternoon hacking away at an internal error which 
freezes b.1703 (which is unusual in my Win2000Pro SP2 system).    I find 
it is a loop command which does the damage.

After getting close to the source of the problem I have altered my code 
  to create a track and find that instead of an immediate crash I get 
the message "Illegal Opcode:   237", which I suppose is progress, not

that I know what it means.

I have reported loop failure twice in the past, in different contexts. 
Both were serious and one generated internal errors.    In those cases I 
was able to demonstrate it in a turnkey only with bizarre code 
arrangements.    This failure promises to be equally elusive because it 
   is in a code module that has not changed, although some code in the 
calling function has changed a bit.

I expect the "Illegal Opcode" message is as misleading as any other 
clue;  I think we have a failure of dBASE to retain safely a pointer to 
the correct line, so anything is possible as a consequence.

If you think the message is actually relevant and that a further turnkey 
would make it possible for R&D to tackle this one then please let me 
know.   Unless it's immediately useful I don't want to spend the hours I
know it'll take to reduce this issue to a turnkey. "



HTH

Hi Bruce,

I found your old thread in the newsgroup archives but I cannot find any
messages that include any code to test with. Can you point me to any
of them?  Did you post anything to binaries for this issue?

Are you offering a turnkey for this error?
If yes, I would very much appreciate it. :)

Thanks,

- Marty -

Martin Kay
dataBased Intelligence, Inc.

> I have spend a sunny afternoon hacking away at an internal error which 
> freezes b.1703 (which is unusual in my Win2000Pro SP2 system).    I find 
> it is a loop command which does the damage.
>
> After getting close to the source of the problem I have altered my code to

> create a track and find that instead of an immediate crash I get the 
> message "Illegal Opcode:   237", which I suppose is progress, not
that I 
> know what it means.
>
> I have reported loop failure twice in the past, in different contexts. 
> Both were serious and one generated internal errors.    In those cases I 
> was able to demonstrate it in a turnkey only with bizarre code 
> arrangements.    This failure promises to be equally elusive because it is

> in a code module that has not changed, although some code in the calling 
> function has changed a bit.
>
> I expect the "Illegal Opcode" message is as misleading as any
other clue; 
> I think we have a failure of dBASE to retain safely a pointer to the 
> correct line, so anything is possible as a consequence.
>
> If you think the message is actually relevant and that a further turnkey 
> would make it possible for R&D to tackle this one then please let me
know. 
> Unless it's immediately useful I don't want to spend the hours I
> know it'll take to reduce this issue to a turnkey. "

Marty

I have forwarded the info to the client. I'll keep you informed about
the status

Thanks for your response

Frank Polan

On Wed, 9 Apr 2008 00:05:41 -0400, "Marty Kay"
<mkay@databi.com>
wrote:

>Hi Frank,
>
>> Does anyone have any idea what could cause this error - or what it
>> means. The line it points to is the start of a  function . The
>> datamodule has been running okay for years
>
>Illegal Opcode: 237 is a dBASE error indicating that  somehow the dBASE
>virtual machine interpreter
>was given an invalid instruction to execute.
>
>In other words, the compiled dBASE object code that was being executed
>contained an invalid instruction.
>
>This can only be caused by one of the following:
>  - Somehow the dBASE Compiler built an object file that contained invalid
>instructions without triggering
>   a compile time error.   This seems very unlikely to me - but maybe
>there's a way to do this.
>
> - The object file became damaged at some point in time after it was
>created.  This can be due to
>   problems with a hard drive or with the file systems on the drive
becoming
>damaged.
>
> - The RAM into which the object file was loaded was somehow damaged or
>corrupted while running
>    the program.  Either the RAM itself is not working properly OR
something
>in your program or in other
>   software running on the customer's computer is somehow writing incorrect
>data to the memory
>   holding the instructions that are triggering the error.
>
>Please report back if you are able to pinpoint the cause of the problem any
>more specifically.
>
>- Marty -
>
>Martin Kay
>dataBased Intelligence, Inc.
>