List index out of bounds (-1) during compile

[ohali]

Hi,
I've an existing Installaware project, that compiled and buildt fine in IA9. After we've changed the target framework of our .NET solution to 4.0 we've got the error "unable to get assembly information". I've found some other users who had the same problem in IA9 and IA10, but it was mentioned, that the problem does not exist anymore in newer versions of IA. So I've decided to updgrade to IA12.

When I try compile my project in IA12 I get the error message "List index out of bounds (-1)" immediately after starting the compile, before the progress window appears. Currently I've no chance to build a setup... IA9 says "unable to get assembly information" and IA12 says "List index out of bounds". It's the same setup script in both versions and it's the same script that I've buildt successfully dozens of times before changing the target framework of my project.

I've read in the forum that there might be an extra "end" statement in the script causing this problem, but I've found none.
What can I do or try to solve this issue?

Thanks in advance!

[FrancescoT]

Dear Ohali,

Plaese check carefully your If / End and While / end statements.

Then also try to remove one by one each script that you use .... then build the project in order to localize which it is causing the problem.
Note, I suggest to make a backup copy of your project then work on copy .... to avoid any trouble with the original files.

Regards

[ohali]

Dear Francesco,

as mentioned before, I had already checked my if/end and while/end statements. I've checked them again now. There is nothing wrong, no missing or unnecessary 'end'.

In my opinion this is clearly a bug in IA, and a serious one as well. Just to show up with an error message with no hint what kind of error it is and where to search for it is ... well, at least anachronistically. Feels like programming a Commodore PET 28 years ago ...

I'm trying now to remove all scripts...

Kind regards

[FrancescoT]

Dear Ohali,

if you are able to give me something that I can send to development department ... I will try to verify if exist the possibility to investigate on.

I have personally converted hundreds of projects and never happened ... but I understand that it may not sound impartial.

Regards

[ohali]

Dear Francesco,

I've found the problem: it was a small and simple wizard loop with 3 dialogs! Not a missing 'end' or anything like that: the whole loop looked correct! I've replaced the loop with the normal 'if WIZARD goto' construct and the project compiles ... well at least better, because there was the next pitfall waiting for me with the 'Unable to compile MSI action install assembly' problem, where I had to replace 'install assembly' with 'install files'. Now it compiles without any error.

Summary: really hard work to update from one IA version to another!!! And a lot of pitfalls on the way which really shouldn't be there...

Regards

[FrancescoT]

Dear Ohali,

I am really happy that you solved!!

Anyway I forward your observations to dev team.

Regards

[moorelife]

I have the same problem (the index out of bounds), but it has only happened since I introduced two extra dialogs into the wizard sequence, and call them conditionally, so only one gets done. The variables that choose which dialog surfaces are set by the dialog before that, as the user selects a radio button. I tried putting a code sample here, but the copy from InstallAware makes a real mess of a paste into a normal text editor.

Other than that, all are called using the standard wizard code fragment, except for the conditional calling of them....

I tried taking all of that new code out, but the problem remains. Any well-informed ideas? If only the message told us where to look for that error....

Highest Regards,

André

[FrancescoT]

Dear André,

please check that conditional statements are correctly handled.

As for example:
"IF & END", "loop", "While" .... sequences

Regards