[rt.cpan.org #83237] Can't use string ("Win32::API::Struct") as a HASH ref while "strict refs"

[Albert via RT]

Mon Feb 11 17:41:59 2013: Request 83237 was acted upon.
Transaction: Correspondence added by gepebril
Queue: Win32-API
Subject: Can't use string ("Win32::API::Struct") as a HASH ref while "strict refs"
Broken in: 0.75
Severity: Critical
Owner: Nobody
Requestors: compuvi...@gmail.com
Status: open
Ticket <URL: https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=83237 >


Thanks for the reply and testing.

> So what is the failing code? I tried a "make test" on Win32:SystemInfo
> and it passed. I also tried
I never done this make test, do you have the cli how to test that?

> and saw nothing (like warnings/dies) in console. Using ::API 0.75 on
> 32bit winxp.
I tried to replicate my old environment with autobundle and it worked,
but not for the Win32::SystemInfo module. It mentioned I could only
install it with force. I just found out that my old environment is
5.12.3.0-32bit and not 5.12.3.0-64bit which I used on the new
environment. The problem only occurs on the new environment. I run on
both environments Win7 64 bits. So early conclusion is that the problem
only occurs on 64 bits versions of Strawberry Perl, not on the 32 bits
version. I will check it hopefully tomorrow.

[Albert via RT]

Tue Feb 12 15:57:54 2013: Request 83237 was acted upon.

Transaction: Correspondence added by gepebril
Queue: Win32-API
Subject: Can't use string ("Win32::API::Struct") as a HASH ref while "strict refs"
Broken in: 0.75
Severity: Critical
Owner: Nobody
Requestors: compuvi...@gmail.com
Status: open
Ticket <URL: https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=83237 >

I will check it hopefully tomorrow.

Yup the problem didn't occur in the 32 bits (latest) version of Perl
Strawberry. Should Win32::SystemInfo be compatible with the 64 release
of Strawberry Perl?

[Daniel Dragan via RT]

Wed Feb 13 02:44:43 2013: Request 83237 was acted upon.
Transaction: Correspondence added by BULKDD

Queue: Win32-API
Subject: Can't use string ("Win32::API::Struct") as a HASH ref while "strict refs"
Broken in: 0.75
Severity: Critical
Owner: Nobody
Requestors: compuvi...@gmail.com
Status: open
Ticket <URL: https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=83237 >

On Tue Feb 12 15:57:54 2013, gepebril wrote:
> I will check it hopefully tomorrow.
>
> Yup the problem didn't occur in the 32 bits (latest) version of Perl
> Strawberry. Should Win32::SystemInfo be compatible with the 64 release
> of Strawberry Perl?

I reproduced it ("Can't use string ("Win32::API::Struct") as a HASH ref
while "strict refs"") only on x64 Perl with a nmake test. 32 bit Perl
passed an nmake test. Win32::API is supposed to support x64 as good as
32 bits. If the user's app that uses Win32::API is written *correctly*,
his app will work transparently on x64 and 32 bit. I will investigate it
further tomorrow.

On Mon Feb 11 17:41:59 2013, gepebril wrote:
> Thanks for the reply and testing.
>
> > So what is the failing code? I tried a "make test" on Win32:SystemInfo
> > and it passed. I also tried
> I never done this make test, do you have the cli how to test that?

Google "perl make test" no quotes. I specifically used nmake (not make)
since I use Visual C, not Cygwin/Linux.

[Albert via RT]

Wed Feb 13 06:04:28 2013: Request 83237 was acted upon.
Transaction: Correspondence added by gepebril

Queue: Win32-API
Subject: Can't use string ("Win32::API::Struct") as a HASH ref while "strict refs"
Broken in: 0.75
Severity: Critical
Owner: Nobody
Requestors: compuvi...@gmail.com
Status: open
Ticket <URL: https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=83237 >

> I reproduced it ("Can't use string ("Win32::API::Struct") as a HASH ref
> while "strict refs"") only on x64 Perl with a nmake test. 32 bit Perl
> passed an nmake test. Win32::API is supposed to support x64 as good as
> 32 bits. If the user's app that uses Win32::API is written *correctly*,
> his app will work transparently on x64 and 32 bit. I will investigate it
> further tomorrow.

Aha, thanks for taking the time to try to reproduce it. Good news. A bug
is bug when it can be reproduced. I used the sample from the Cpan module
Win32::SystemInfo so that part should be correctly. Or are you referring
to Win:System32Info that is not using Win32::API correctly?

> Google "perl make test" no quotes. I specifically used nmake (not make)
> since I use Visual C, not Cygwin/Linux.

Ok, I forgot. You have to use make when you don't use cpan -> install
but download the module manually. As for the last two years everything
with Perl went so smoothly I stopped using it.

[Albert via RT]

Wed Feb 13 06:12:08 2013: Request 83237 was acted upon.

Transaction: Correspondence added by gepebril
Queue: Win32-API
Subject: Can't use string ("Win32::API::Struct") as a HASH ref while "strict refs"
Broken in: 0.75
Severity: Critical
Owner: Nobody
Requestors: compuvi...@gmail.com
Status: open
Ticket <URL: https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=83237 >

Tobyink has mentioned regarding this issue:
- That particular message usually comes from using a sub designed to be
used as an object method as a class method instead. -
For more info: http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=1017850

[Daniel Dragan via RT]

Wed Feb 13 12:52:50 2013: Request 83237 was acted upon.
Transaction: Correspondence added by BULKDD

Queue: Win32-API
Subject: Can't use string ("Win32::API::Struct") as a HASH ref while "strict refs"
Broken in: 0.75
Severity: Critical
Owner: Nobody
Requestors: compuvi...@gmail.com
Status: open
Ticket <URL: https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=83237 >

On Wed Feb 13 06:12:08 2013, gepebril wrote:
> Tobyink has mentioned regarding this issue:
> - That particular message usually comes from using a sub designed to be
> used as an object method as a class method instead. -
> For more info: http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=1017850

the failure comes from "$MEMORYSTATUSEX->{dwLength} =
Win32::API::Struct->sizeof($MEMORYSTATUSEX);" which was added in
https://github.com/iamthechad/perl-win32-systeminfo/commit/6d1264e1899a54f1ec518ec1db4be8ea133401b3
The reason it works on 32 bits is because 2 different paths are taken in
::SystemInfo, starting at
https://github.com/iamthechad/perl-win32-systeminfo/blob/e311b78194335a8cfedf8951f495264072f0161d/SystemInfo.pm#L121
.

Looking at Win32::API's docs, its unclear in ::Type and ::Struct's POD
what is an object method and what is a class method. I looked in ::API's
test kit and all ::Struct::sizeof calls were on objects not classes. The
problem in ::SystemInfo on x64 is already covered by
https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=48008 . So what do you want
me to do? Add class method support to the ::Struct::sizeof method, or
improve the POD and say its object method only?

The author of ::SystemInfo last responded in 2009 in the ::SystemInfo
bug. He will ultimately have to respond to get this mess fixed. He
doesn't seem to be around much anymore. His http://www.megatome.com/
blog's last post is oct 25 2012 and last CPAN upload 4.5 years ago,
blog's contact page is broken http://www.megatome.com/contact/ which is
domain parked to http://visitorcontact.com/embed/1876 but his github
https://github.com/iamthechad?tab=activity had a push 2 days ago so
there is some hope. Im filing a github bug ticket to try to contact him.

[Daniel Dragan via RT]

Wed Feb 13 19:19:32 2013: Request 83237 was acted upon.

Transaction: Correspondence added by BULKDD
Queue: Win32-API
Subject: Can't use string ("Win32::API::Struct") as a HASH ref while "strict refs"
Broken in: 0.75
Severity: Critical
Owner: Nobody
Requestors: compuvi...@gmail.com
Status: open
Ticket <URL: https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=83237 >

On Wed Feb 13 12:52:50 2013, BULKDD wrote:
>
> The author of ::SystemInfo last responded in 2009 in the ::SystemInfo
> bug. He will ultimately have to respond to get this mess fixed. He
> doesn't seem to be around much anymore. His http://www.megatome.com/
> blog's last post is oct 25 2012 and last CPAN upload 4.5 years ago,
> blog's contact page is broken http://www.megatome.com/contact/ which
> is
> domain parked to http://visitorcontact.com/embed/1876 but his github
> https://github.com/iamthechad?tab=activity had a push 2 days ago so
> there is some hope. Im filing a github bug ticket to try to contact
> him.
>
>

The module is basically abandoned according to
https://github.com/iamthechad/perl-win32-systeminfo/issues/1#issuecomment-13513853
. So what do you want to do? CCing possibly interested people also.

[Albert via RT]

Thu Feb 14 13:56:10 2013: Request 83237 was acted upon.
Transaction: Correspondence added by gepebril

Queue: Win32-API
Subject: Can't use string ("Win32::API::Struct") as a HASH ref while "strict refs"
Broken in: 0.75
Severity: Critical
Owner: Nobody
Requestors: compuvi...@gmail.com
Status: open
Ticket <URL: https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=83237 >

@bulk88

Thanks for al the time and research.

So What I understand from this webpage:
https://github.com/iamthechad/perl-win32-systeminfo/issues/1 is that
iamthechad is the owner of the module and don't have time any more to
fix it. It seems if that is the case you can make the specific module
available for adoption, so somebody else can take over. Sounds like a
nice solution.

I found that other people have also probs with the 64 bits version

Until this happens I will continue to work on the 32 bits Perl version

[Chad Johnston via RT]

Fri Feb 15 00:24:06 2013: Request 83237 was acted upon.
Transaction: Correspondence added by CJOHNSTON

Queue: Win32-API
Subject: Can't use string ("Win32::API::Struct") as a HASH ref while "strict refs"
Broken in: 0.75
Severity: Critical
Owner: Nobody
Requestors: compuvi...@gmail.com
Status: open
Ticket <URL: https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=83237 >

On Thu Feb 14 13:56:10 2013, gepebril wrote:
> @bulk88
>
> Thanks for al the time and research.
>
> So What I understand from this webpage:
> https://github.com/iamthechad/perl-win32-systeminfo/issues/1 is that
> iamthechad is the owner of the module and don't have time any more to
> fix it. It seems if that is the case you can make the specific module
> available for adoption, so somebody else can take over. Sounds like a
> nice solution.
>
> I found that other people have also probs with the 64 bits version
>
> Until this happens I will continue to work on the 32 bits Perl version

So, I don't blog much and I haven't fixed my broken contact form. It's
taken me a couple of days to build an environment where I could work on
this since I've moved away from Windows.

I've updated 48008, but the gist right now is that the changes
identified fail under ActivePerl. I haven't even tried any other distros
yet. I've started a feature branch at
https://github.com/iamthechad/perl-win32-systeminfo/tree/v012 in case
anybody wants to take a look.

[Daniel Dragan via RT]

Sat Feb 16 14:10:56 2013: Request 83237 was acted upon.
Transaction: Correspondence added by BULKDD

Queue: Win32-API
Subject: Can't use string ("Win32::API::Struct") as a HASH ref while "strict refs"
Broken in: 0.75
Severity: Critical
Owner: Nobody
Requestors: compuvi...@gmail.com
Status: open
Ticket <URL: https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=83237 >

On Fri Feb 15 00:24:06 2013, CJOHNSTON wrote:
>
> So, I don't blog much and I haven't fixed my broken contact form. It's
> taken me a couple of days to build an environment where I could work on
> this since I've moved away from Windows.
>
> I've updated 48008, but the gist right now is that the changes
> identified fail under ActivePerl. I haven't even tried any other distros
> yet. I've started a feature branch at
> https://github.com/iamthechad/perl-win32-systeminfo/tree/v012 in case
> anybody wants to take a look.

I tested the newly released 0.12 of Win32-SystemInfo (
http://search.cpan.org/~cjohnston/Win32-SystemInfo-0.12/ ). nmake test and
__________________________________________
use Win32::SystemInfo;
my %mHash = (TotalPhys => 0, AvailPhys => 0, MemLoad => 0);
if (Win32::SystemInfo::MemoryStatus(%mHash)) {0;}
__________________________________________
don't fail anymore as they did in 0.11. So I am closing this bug.

[Albert via RT]

Thu Feb 21 08:54:33 2013: Request 83237 was acted upon.
Transaction: Correspondence added by gepebril

Queue: Win32-API
Subject: Can't use string ("Win32::API::Struct") as a HASH ref while "strict refs"
Broken in: 0.75
Severity: Critical
Owner: Nobody
Requestors: compuvi...@gmail.com

Status: rejected
Ticket <URL: https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=83237 >

> I tested the newly released 0.12 of Win32-SystemInfo (
> http://search.cpan.org/~cjohnston/Win32-SystemInfo-0.12/ ). nmake test
and
> __________________________________________
> use Win32::SystemInfo;
> my %mHash = (TotalPhys => 0, AvailPhys => 0, MemLoad => 0);
> if (Win32::SystemInfo::MemoryStatus(%mHash)) {0;}
> __________________________________________
> don't fail anymore as they did in 0.11. So I am closing this bug.

Thanks very much!