I do work on DFHack, so I am interested in the details, actually.
OK, but I'm awfully verbous and disgress a lot. You've been warned! In case it helps, I'll describe the bug in excruciating detail.
O] use Windows XP
I] donwload and unzip df_44_12_win32.zip
II] download and unzip dfhack-044-12-r2-Windows-32,
read the docs and install it on top of Dwarf Fortress
III] run Dwarf Fortress.exe
IV] oh my! DF doesn't answer! Why? Has it crashed?
V] open Task Manager
VI] look into Process tab
VII] holy shit! Dwarf Fortress.exe is right here,
still running in the background...
but there's no console window, no GUI window!
VIII] kill Dwarf Fortress.exe,
because... what else can I do?
IX] no error reports, no logfiles to be seen
does your machine have SSE?
I don't know. What does SSE stand for? Social Software Engineering, Sexual Side Effects, Soap Suds Enema?
Let me assume SSE it's a hardware-related thingie. Back in the day I tested dfhack-0.44.12-r2 on Vista and it was running fine. So I guess there's no issue with the machine itself, but it's a WinXP thing. Does it answer your question?
(Pesky details: my laptop is an Acer Aspire 7720G. It can dualboot in Windows XP and Vista. The later came preinstalled by the OEM, and I keep it aroung as a failsafe and for testing purposes. But I never, never work with Vista if there's the least chance I can avoid it.)
I suspect Debug.cpp is where the real issue is
Maybe. I wish I could provide some help, but I can't program in C++. This is the reason I've nuked out the whole bunch of files, rather than digging deep into the code.
My modus operandi was sheer trial and error:
(1st) find the differences between 0.44.12-r1 and 0.44.12-r2 with WinDiff
(2nd) for every suspicious change: revert to r1 -> compile -> install -> run
(3rd) repeat until the shot hits the target.
apologies for that, but if it's just affecting XP, we don't have the resources to put in to maintain that
Don't worry, as far as I'd be able to craft my own binaries, I'll be OK. Since I assumed dfhack support for WinXP had been dropped, my posts weren't aimed to the developers but to end-users (hello Grey Goo!) and fix-it-yourselfers (hello me!).