WM2003+ Pocket Word users, beware! A just discovered bug

[Menneisyys]

Unfortunately, these two Pocket Word versions have one thing in common: they both crash if you enter too large paragraphs and then, enter ->. Then, all your work will be gone.

This means, to be on the safe side, you should never enter the -> combinations while typing in Pocket Word! Word crashed on me several times before this and a lot of my work has, therefore, gone lost; this is why I started investigating the case.

Just give it a try enter any sentences (for example, “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.”) some times (use copy/paste) and then, enter -> (you can enter a space before it). If you’ve copied the sentence enough times, Word will immediately crash, killing all your work. (Note that the bug will come out with any kind of text in any language.)

This will the case with all the WM2003 and WM2003SE Pocket PC’s. I’ver even tested this on freshly hard reset PPC’s – they all will crash.

I’ve also checked this on my Jornada 720 and Pocket PC 2000 E-125. They aren’t affected by the bug: it seems to be WM2003-specific. (I didn’t have the chance to test this on PPC2k2 devices.)

[Kati Compton]

Thread moved from Just Chattin' to Software...

[Darius Wey]

Maybe I've missed something? I just tried this on all my WM2003/WM2003SE devices, as well as the emulator, and I've not had a single crash.

[Menneisyys]

Maybe I've missed something? I just tried this on all my WM2003/WM2003SE devices, as well as the emulator, and I've not had a single crash.

It sometimes only surfaces after entering some 1-2 kbytes of text first, in not very short paragraphs - not before that.

axim_wannabe over at AximSitehas also tested this bug and reported it reappear on even Japanese PPC's (http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=93927).

[Menneisyys]

Some other threads with posts from people that have also managed to reproduce the bug:

http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=93927
http://pocketpcmag.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17484
http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=119742
http://www.ipaqhq.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20935

[Darius Wey]

I just discovered the bug you're talking about. Earlier, I was typing in ">" instead of "->" - hence, the seemingly bug-free instance.

Back on topic - that's a nasty bug. :(

[Menneisyys]

I just discovered the bug you're talking about. Earlier, I was typing in ">" instead of "->" - hence, the seemingly bug-free instance.

Back on topic - that's a nasty bug. :(

Yup... you can't "draw" arrows in ASCII with the -> combination. Will need to switch to, for example, => (if it works, that is).

[stevelam]

Hey Menneisyys I am loving the forum rank, Pocket PC Pope 8)

[JamesM]

I wish I knew about this before a seminar I attended last month. I had 4 days of lecture notes in one document in Pocket Word. I was careful to save often. All of a sudden Pocket Word crashed and I had no notes. I wonder if I inadvertantly typed that combination. Hmmm. Textmaker for me from now on...