Unable to debug indesign cs5 plugin in windows

Question

Hi, again. Originaly posted here: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/766469?tstart=0
We are having some problems with an indesign sc5 plugin, it works perfectly in macosx but in windows it causes indesign to crash. Anyway after some trouble shooting we tried running it in debug indesign. Problem is that the debug version of indesign wont even start, it fezzes in the splash screen on "Registering xxx plug-ins". It hangs before we can write anything in log files and thatching a debugger gives nothing. Closer inspections
revealed that all the indesign treads is in "waiting" state. Waiting for what? Don't know. Killing one of the threads allows indesign to start but it will not have loaded the plugin and we are back on square one unable to debug.
Anyway I installed the osx version of debug indesign and starting it gives an assert like: 
No translation of key 'com.adobe.rc.operationalmessages' to British string. 
BreakStrToDebugger
ASSERT_FUNC
Examining the stack of the indesign main thread in windows gives pretty much the same thing:
0, ntkrnlpa.exe!KiDeliverApc+0xb3
1, ntkrnlpa.exe!ZwYieldExecution+0x19ae
2, ntkrnlpa.exe!NtWaitForSingleObject+0x9a
3, ntkrnlpa.exe!KeReleaseInStackQueuedSpinLockFromDpcLevel+0xb14
4, ntdll.dll!KiFastSystemCallRet
5, kernel32.dll!WaitForSingleObject+0x12
6, PMRuntime.dll!ClientShowAssert+0x8d
7, PMRuntime.dll!BreakStrToDebugger+0x15
8, PMRuntime.dll!ASSERT_FUNC+0x117
9, NETAPI32.dll+0xbe86972
(as reported by the ProcessHacker process viewer)
So the win version is trying to show an assert window but fails, locking indesign in the splash screen? Stoping indesign before any plugin execution?
As we cant get any debug information out we don really know what the problem is, making it rather hard to debug. We have triple checked the build and linking options. Studied the plugin exports. Inserted an ridiculous amount of trace statements in the code, doesn't work in the debug version but anyway.
Have anyone had a problem like this or know what might cause it?
What happens in the indesign startup process, what does the “Registering plug-ins” actually do? It's not executing any plugin functions and the the initialization of the plugins doesn't happen until later.

Answer 1

You are correct in that none pf the plug-in code is executed during the "Registering ### plug-ins" phase. What is done here is simply loading the plugins by reading from their resource definitions. For example, if you try to load a CS4 plug-in in InDesign CS5 or if you try to load a release plug-in in debug version you will get errors and popups here and your plugin will not load and be available (these are just example errors and may not be relevant to your case). As far as I know InDesign should not crash just because there is a problem with your plugin, but there could be bugs.
I would recommend:
1. Remove your plugins and verify that InDesign debug starts properly without any 3rd party extensions.
2. Compile one of the SDK sample plugins (debug target) and make sure that InDesign still starts properly.
3. Create a new project using DollyXs, compile it and make sure it loads in InDesign.
4. Remove the template files and add your own source files except the basic .fr file and make sure it still loads in InDesign.
5. Keep changing things one at a time in your .fr file and verify it still loads until it looks exactly like your original .fr file.
Good luck.
Note: "No translation of key 'XXX' to British string." errors is in general quite harmless. It's only a problem with the string translation and should only affect string output in menus/dialogs etc. They should of course be fixed, but can generally be ignored for a while unless an infinite ASSERT loop prevents you from debugging.