37. (Windows XP) On some Dell platforms, Stata would fail to
launch due to another process being frozen. If frozen
processes exist, Stata now works around this and still
launches.
If Elizabeth is already using the latest executable update and
is still encountering this problem, she should contact Stata
Technical Support at [email protected] so that people here
can help diagnose and solve the problem.
Those not interested in exceedingly technical details of this
issue should stop reading now.
When Stata starts, it loads the Stata font. Microsoft documentation
tells us that we should let all other currently-running applications
know that this font has been loaded by sending them a broadcast
message. Microsoft documents that this should be done with
a 'SendMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_FONTCHANGE, ...)' call, which
sends a message to all top-level windows on the system letting them
know that the set of fonts currently available on the system has
changed.
This is where the freeze was occuring. Windows will not return
control to Stata until all applications which receive that message
return control back to Windows. If some other process on the system
is frozen, Windows will never get an answer back after sending
that message, and, in turn, Stata will never get control back
from Windows.
We worked around the issue by using a call other than SendMessage()
which guaranteed we would get control back even if some other
application on the system were frozen. This means we aren't using
the Microsoft-documented method of letting other applications know about
the font change, but since that way results in Stata potentially
freezing, we feel our method is better.
--Alan
([email protected])
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