what are symbols?

[stevemiller]

got this error from Dr. Watson: " *** WARNING: Unable to
verify checksum for C:\WINDOWS\System32\nwiz.exe
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be
loaded for C:\WINDOWS\System32\nwiz.exe
function: <nosymbols>
No prior disassembly possible "

nwiz.exe has to do with my NVIDIA graphics card desktop
display options. I have the latest drivers and updates and
directX 9.0 is A ok. I think nwiz.exe is working as it
shows in my processes list and I have no problems with
graphics card related desktop options.

I just wanted to know what "symbols" we're talking about
here...In layman's terms if possible.

TIA

 

[cquirke (MVP Win9x)]

got this error from Dr. Watson: " *** WARNING: Unable to
verify checksum for C:\WINDOWS\System32\nwiz.exe
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be
loaded for C:\WINDOWS\System32\nwiz.exe
function: <nosymbols>
No prior disassembly possible "

I just wanted to know what "symbols" we're talking about
here...In layman's terms if possible.

While programming, one has to dip in and out of both the executable
code producted and the source code it is written from. Think of this
as going back to change the recepe when what you are cooking tastes
strange, before you declare it done and serve the meal

When the system crashes, you'd typically have a debugger (resident
troubleshooting utility) to tell you something about where this
happened. This is where "symbols" come in; these are the
human-friendly names for parts of the code, addresses holding data
values and so on. While developing the software, a table of these
symbols is included in the code, allowing me to link error report
detail to the matching symbols in the source code.

Once the code is done (heh) and is working well enough to ship (heh
heh) and forget about (heh heh heh), the final compilation typically
strips out the symbol table. That makes the code smaller, but it
means that if the program crashes 'out there', instead of...

Function "ClearScreen" failed
"StartScreen" = 4000FFFF
"EndScreen" = 4FFFFFFE
"Counter" = FFFFFFFE

....you might see only...

CX=002000EA
DX=4000FFFF
EX=4FFFFFFE
BX=FFFFFFFE

....which is a lot less scrutable to the programmer (though both are
equally inscrutible to the end user)

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