Re: [Axiom-developer] wh-sandbox: error in hyperdoc - uncompress is obsolete

[Waldek Hebisch]

> While testing Hyperdoc in the current version wh-sandbox on OpenSuSE 10.2 I
> encountered the following problem while run some example graphics:
> 
> Hyperdoc processed crashed (window disappeared) and the following message
> appeared in the Axiom console session:
> 
> (2) -> XIO:  fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0"
>       after 40603 requests (40235 known processed) with 0 events remaining.
> read_pixmap_file: unable to open
> /home/wspage/axiom-sandbox/target/i686-suse-linux/share/viewports/AssortedGraphicsExamplePage6.VIEW/image.xpm
> uncompress: No such file or directory
> 
> -------
> 
> My understanding is that 'uncompress' is an obselete name for 'gzip -d'. Is 
> that
> correct?
> 

Not exactly, 'uncompress' the program to decompress .Z (LZW compressed)
files.  Later 'gzip' was created and to large degree reduced need to
use 'compress' and 'uncompress'.  And yes, 'gzip -d' can do the job
of 'uncompress' (and more).

I have met similar (or maybe exactly this) problem.  'uncompress'
program is uses by Xpm library -- to see any images at all you
must have 'uncompress' program (shell script passing work to 'gzip -d'
may serve as a replacement).  But on some machines there are problems
even if 'uncompress' is present.  In fact on dual core Pentums running
Debian prerelease most of the time I get error trying to see images
(but sometimes images work).  I have traced my problem to Xpm library
-- it looked that 'uncompress' was nicely decompressing images,
but for unknown reasons Xpm library decided that 'uncompress' was
not working and returned error indication.  I am not sure where the
real error is: it may be bug in this version of Xpm library, it may
be that Hyperdoc is messing with process control in ways which
confilct with Xpm.  All machines where I was able to reproduce the
problem run the same version of Debian on the same hardware, so it
looked likely that this is a bug in Debian provided Xpm library.

There is a workaroud: in wh-sandbox Hyperdoc will uncompressed files
if they are present (or 'gzip' compressed ones, but AFAIK 'gzip -d'
has the same problem as 'uncompress').  At least in my case reading
uncompressed images never failed.  So you can try uncomressing
all .xpm.Z files (wastefull on space, but should work ...).

In the future we want to replace Xpm library by a different (portable)
image library, so the problem should automatically go away.  If the
problem affects more poeple I will probably look again at it to
find quicker solutuion.

-- 
                              Waldek Hebisch
address@hidden