Microsoft KB Archive/46251

Difference of Output When Using OS/2 Version 1.10 MKMSGF.EXE PSS ID Number: Q46251 Article last modified on 05-09-1991 PSS database name: O_Os2PrTk

1.10

OS/2

Summary:

Assume the following message source files SAMPLEA.TXT and SAMPLEB.TXT:

SAMPLEA SAMPLEA0100E: text for msg 0100. SAMPLEA0101E: text for msg 0101.

SAMPLEB SAMPLEB0000E: text for msg 0000. SAMPLEB0001E: text for msg 0001.

Note that the SAMPLEA source file has messages starting at 0100, while the SAMPLEB source file has messages starting at 0000. The message files can be created with the OS/2 MKMSGF.EXE utility to generate .MSG files from these input .TXT files using the following commands:

MKMSGF SAMPLEA.TXT SAMPLEA.MSG MKMSGF SAMPLEB.TXT SAMPLEB.MSG

This results in the message files SAMPLEA.MSG and SAMPLEB.MSG. There is a difference in the output of these messages using different versions of the OS/2 MKMSGF.EXE utility.

More Information:

Using the OS/2 1.00 Programmer’s Toolkit (PTK) MKMSGF.EXE utility to build the message files and using the OS/2 HELP utility to display the following message text results in the output of the proper message text:

HELPMSG SAMPLEA0100 HELPMSG SAMPLEA0101

HELPMSG SAMPLEB0000 HELPMSG SAMPLEB0001

However, when using the OS/2 1.10 PTK MKMSGF.EXE utility to build the message files, the output using the above HELPMSG commands results in proper output for the SAMPLEA messages, but the SAMPLEB messages do not work properly. Specifically, the SAMPLEB messages will not be found when they are numbered starting at 0000. In addition, an incorrect side effect is that when asking for message SAMPLEA0000 (not a valid SAMPLEA message number), the message SAMPLEA0100 is displayed. Therefore, until this problem is corrected, you should not start numbering messages at 0000. Instead, you should start numbering messages at 0001 or 0100.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem with the MKMSGF.EXE utility included with the Microsoft OS/2 PTK version 1.10. We are researching this problem and will post new information as it becomes available.

A current workaround is to use the MKMSGF.EXE utility included with the Microsoft OS/2 version 1.00 Programmer’s Toolkit. The version of MKMSGF.EXE included with OS/2 1.10 displays a version of “1.5”, while the version of MKMSGF.EXE included with OS/2 1.00 does not display a version number.

There also is an updated version of MKMSGF that corrects this problem in the Software/Data Library. The new version number is 1.9. A copy of this updated version of MKMSGF can be found in the Software/Data Library by searching on the keyword MKMSGF, the Q number of this article, or S12417. MKMSGF was archived using the PKware file-compression utility.

Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1991.