Very odd problem with NMODL files

[JBall]

Hello again,

Today I spent six hours debugging a pair of .mod files. Functionally they were identical with different parameters, but one calculates numbers correctly and the other doesn't. In the process of debugging, I got to the point where these mod files were completely identical, character by character, except for their name (the POINT_PROCESS tag). I even tried about 4 different names (in case I had picked a reserved label) for the file that didn't work, to no avail. Finally, I've decided to use the working file and pass different parameters to it upon initialization to get it to do what the other file was supposed to do. I was thinking it might be an encoding issue (I'm using Notepad++ for coding), but regardless of whether I copy/pasted or typed it all by hand, I got the same results. Has anyone encountered anything like this? I'm concerned now that my current files are also going to start bugging out for no apparent reason and that my models will stop working. I guess I've got it under control, but I'm really worried about the stability of future simulations.

Thanks to anyone that can help.

[ted]

If you zip up the files, along with whatever hoc and ses files you used to evaluate their performance, and email them to me
ted dot carnevale at yale dot edu
I will try to identify the cause of the problem.

What OS and which version of NEURON are you using?

[JBall]

I just sent you an e-mail with the files in a zip called "BugTest.zip."

I forgot to mention my OS and version, though: I'm using Windows Vista Home SP1 with NEURON v7.1; however, I had the exact problem on Windows XP SP3 as well with the same files.

Thanks again!

[ted]

I just sent you an e-mail with the files in a zip called "BugTest.zip."

The problem was caused by the fact that the simulation depended on the order of calculation of the BREAKPOINT blocks of the mod files. An effective workaround is to identify the mod file whose BREAKPOINT block must be executed last, then change the name of the file so that it is last in an alphabetic sort (e.g. change Intr3.mod to zIntr3.mod).