World: r3wp

Hmm... ok then that might explain something.   I recall a copy function 
I had that caused the interal code of REBOL to spill out so I assume 
it has something to do with my port handling as that copy function 
I had did similiar.

So it might be in the area where I have a copy/part on file data 
which would result in a block.

Geomol where did you get that information as it being an internal 
marker for end of block?

R3 datatypes: http://www.rebol.net/wiki/Datatypes

Many are the same in R2.

ok thanks.

I think, end! was hidden in R2 and will be exposed in R3.

I suppose so.  Maybe Gabriele will be lurking and can provide more 
info.

I suppose the end! datatype isn't really interal code as I understood 
internal code in REBOL.

It appears possibly to do with the sort function

You can see the problem here - as it only seems to appear when the 
sort function is introduced:

>> head dbrecs

== make list! [1 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 ...
>> length? head dbrecs
== 10098
>> dbrecs
== make list! []
>> find head dbrecs end!
== none
>> sort head dbrecs

== make list! [1 4 5 end unset 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 2
7 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40...
>> find head dbrecs end!

== make list! [end unset 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2
9 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42...

What do you see, if you do a
>> ? system/version

>> system/version
== 2.7.5.3.1

Have you checked the bug database, if it's a known issue?
http://www.rebol.net/cgi-bin/rambo.r

If it is the sort function then that would explain why putting the 
checks in my script didn't catch it because I was only using the 
sort in the console to test some other ideas.

(Just click the link, I gave, to run the bug database in your browser.)

I just searched it and didn't find mention of this problem.

This is related, I think: http://www.rebol.net/cgi-bin/rambo.r?id=3761&

Possibly.

But that one says its built already so there is still a problem that 
exists with the function.

I'm going to run another test real quick to see if it effects just 
the list datatype by converting to block before the sort

Ahhh - the problem goes away if I convert my list to a block datatype 
before the sort.

So sort is causing the problem when performed on a list datatype

Do you know of any mezzanine functions that utilize sort?

Is there a version 2.76?

2.7.6 rather

Different versions: http://www.rebol.net/builds/031/

Sort scripts: http://www.rebol.org/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/rebol/search.r?find=sort&form=yes

Yeah I don't see any hint of a version 2.7.6 in that list but I seen 
in the Rambo database a reference to one problem being fixed in version 
2.7.6.

There is an internal alpha of 2.7.6 that has not been released and 
I don't think RAMBO yet shows all the bugfixes for 2.7.6. Carl doesn't 
want to spend too much time on it, so Maarten is appointed release 
manager for it, as he was with R3 alpha 1.

so does this mean that 2.7.6 may never get released and instead just 
R3?

I hope not :-) I need some of those fixes for R2.

I don't mind the problems as long as they are being fixed for R3.

I have production systems that will not be migrated to R3, so I hope 
they will be fixed.

I don't know the sales stradegy for R3 which is why I'm not currently 
designing TRETBASE around it.  If I knew more I might make the leap 
now but didn't know how long alphas would be operable etc, costs 
of the end product of R3, etc...

it's a dangerous period for relying on R3 stability, because of modules, 
tasks and unicode not being in place yet. some very basic things 
may still change so much that the initial R3 test scripts might not 
work anymore.

Yeah good point.

I wouldn't expect production stability until about a year from now, 
but that doesn't mean we don't get to play with a lot of juicy alphas 
in the mean time. :-)

I actually haven't played with them much - it hasn't yet appealed 
to me.  Maybe I just don't understand everything that is changing.

yeah, it can be a little hard. although a good measure is to try 
the VID3 dialect and compare that with R2 VID. what you can do there 
is basically how much R3 is beyond R2 in capability in almost all 
areas. One thing I love is how each and every single function is 
being visited for functionality enhancements that allows you to for 
example write a loop with FOREACH, that manipulates with the block 
it's traversing in a complex way in just a few lines of code. Many 
things that require 10-20 lines of code in R2 can be done in 3-5 
lines in R3.

Wow that is pretty amazing considering that R2 is very concise already.

Sort bug has now been submitted to RAMBO.

I hope you reduced the report. The bug can be shown with only:
>> sort make list! [1 4 5 6]
== make list! [1 4 end sort]

i probably should have but I submitted what I outputted here and 
pasted it as it was fresh on my mind.

Oh well, it's in there now, that's good.

It's strange what we both get:

>> sort make list! [1 2 3 4]
== make list! [1 2 end 3]
>> sort make list! [1 4 5 6]
== make list! [1 4 end :context!]

weird I got the :context! datatype.

context! and object! are not interchangeble however.

It seems like the memory manager is getting list! nodes from a common 
pool, and then SORT is messing up the rebuilding of the list and 
putting random data in the post-sorted list during the sorting process.

end! is the block end marker, you should never see that. list! is 
bugged, and noone ever used it, that's why it's not even in R3.