100% way to crash Xtreme (NULL pointer)

**instinctive.de** · 23 February 2010, 06:08 PM

Thought this might be useful to the devs.

1. Create photo document
2. Import image
3. Activate "Mask mode"
4. Draw a closed shape
5. Draw a second closed shape inside the first shape
6. "Combine Shapes" -> "Substract Shapes" (I would have expected the top shape to create a hole in the mask created by the bottom shape, like in does with "manual mask mode" ;-), but this does not work)
7. Undo
8. Serious Error from Xtreme - Access Violation exception at 0x00000000

**Albacore** · 24 February 2010, 09:19 AM

If you are wanting to make a frame for your photo surely the wat to do this is to do the following:
1. Draw your 2 rectangles
2. Select both rectangles
3. Hold down Ctrl+2 (Subtract Shapes)
4. Fit your photo to suit frame

**instinctive.de** · 24 February 2010, 09:39 AM

Actually no, what I wanted is to cut out an object of a photo. First the coarse shape; then I wanted to remove some additional 'holes' in it.

Yes, the way I normally do it is to just use the shape editor to draw the desired shape, substract as needed, and then intersect it with the photo.

This time however, I wanted to try out the feature that is "intended" to do such stuff (which is mask mode, if you ask me) - and the bug report is still valid

**handrawn** · 24 February 2010, 09:47 AM

the mask help refers specifically to combine shapes but no reference at all on intersect/subtract/slice - so rather unsupported than bug?

not sure what advantage it would give in this respect if it was operational?

**handrawn** · 24 February 2010, 09:51 AM

scrub that - there is a reference to slice.......

**instinctive.de** · 24 February 2010, 09:58 AM

Sorry, but a NULL pointer dereference is ALWAYS a bug ;-)

**handrawn** · 24 February 2010, 10:06 AM

Fair enough - I would not know if that were so or not

**instinctive.de** · 24 February 2010, 10:21 AM

Even if you were not a programmer - wouldn't you think that a strange error message telling about an "exception" and cryptic hexadecimal numbers is more than an "unsupported feature"?

**handrawn** · 24 February 2010, 10:41 AM

ok I've tried it exactly as you state several times using both freehand and pen tool, menu and keyboard shortcuts for subtract, and menu and bar for undo

the subtractiion did not work, true - but neither did I get any crash/error/exception...

AVE's crop up every now and then in xtreme, I'm used to them, but like you say, I have no real idea what they refer to specifically

**instinctive.de** · 24 February 2010, 10:48 AM

A null pointer exception in general most probably means that Xtreme tried to access an object (image, vector shape, menu button, window, view, ...) that does not exist (anymore).

In this case, the explanation is probably that the substract operation never actually took place (which is actually reflected in its visible result), and then Xtreme tries to "undo" it