2
ghisler(Author)
It doesn't seem to matter.
Look at the screenshots of other crashes i have gotten when further trying to find ways to more reliably reproduce the issue (this time in x64 TC, with the clipboard fortunately not being blocked).
Image:
https://imgur.com/a/QAo51ap
Image:
https://imgur.com/a/jwSN1TO
For crying out loud, i could even reproduce the issue in a VM running a blank Win7 x64 Pro:
Image:
https://imgur.com/a/X51Fm96
Note that the stack traces in all three screenshots are exactly the same, but the files involved are different. And while the involved files are different, note that their content is ASCII only with Windows-style line breaks (\r\n).
Also, i don't know whether it is just coincidence or not, but in all 3 crashes i captured i always had selected the content of the larger of the two files.
The procedure i did was always the same:
1. Start TC with fresh INI.
2. Select one of the two files in each of the two file panels.
3. Open File compare tool (Alt+F, Y)
4. Enter edit mode (Alt+M)
5. Sometimes i TAB into the right panel, sometimes i leave the left panel active.
6. ALT+A, ALT+C
7. If unlucky: no crash. If lucky: crash.
8. If no crash, close TC, and start again with step 1.
I have had to try quite a number of times, at least
40 ... 50 times, if not more, between crashes, and did not switch between different pairs of files during the test repititions. I endured this only with the help of copious amounts of coffee...
The relatively infrequent occurence of the crashes despite always executing the same sequence of steps again and again points towards some race condition. Don't use a debug build for testing, use the release build as used by the users. (It is not unusual for the runtime behavior of debug builds to differ in such a way that race conditions experienced with release builds don't happen with debug builds.) Troubleshooting this nasty will certainly be no fun for you.
If you still can't reproduce the problem on your end, i can offer you to provide the VM disk image that i used to run and crash TC's file compare tool (the one you see running in my 3rd screenshot). It is in vdmk format and compressed would be an estimated 10 .. 15 GB in size. The Windows 7 x64 OS on it is not registered/activated (as you can see in the lower right corner of the screenshot) and has VMWare tools installed in it. Other than that, there is no other software installed besides TC, so there shouldn't be any issue regarding sharing or distribution of licenses. I take it as a given that you already have VMs or can setup a VM quickly on your own, but hey, in any case, let me know if you are interested in it...