[Pan-users] Re: 65535 New messages in thread

[Duncan]

Dave I posted <address@hidden>, excerpted
below,  on Tue, 02 Sep 2003 15:56:47 +1000:

> Getting a weird problem in comp.graphics.apps.gimp today. After checking
> for new headers (there were none as far as i can tell) it scores then
> sets this thread as having 65535 new messages =). Expand the thread and
> no new messages, UnExpand it again and 65535 new messages again.

That's probably a bug in the new code that's supposed to remove ignored
messages from the unread count.  65535 is 16 bits of all ones, which comes
up 65535 as an unsigned integer, or -1 as a signed 16 bit integer.  Thus,
it's a good bet that what has happened is that the filtering code caught
an existing message that needed filtered, and mistakenly subtracted it
from the unread count as if it was a new message.  Since the unread count
was already 0, subtracting one left it at -1 signed, which PAN's display
parsed as unsigned since there can't be negative one unread messages, thus
showing it as 65535.

I'm not a C programmer and don't know what to do with the trace nor have I
waded into the code, so that's as far as I can take it, but that's what's
got to have happened, given the number and its significance as a 16-bit
integer.  Given that, it shouldn't be to difficult to trace down the
problem, tho fixing it could be, if it means changing the logic so PAN
tracks how many are actually new b4 it starts subtracting, so it doesn't
subtract more from the unread count than there are unread posts!  <g>

-- 
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