Patent ID: 7216341

Claim:
In a computer system comprising an operating system and compiled software that calls one or more routines, a method of providing a more robust system with enhanced error diagnosis capabilities by instrumenting the compiled software to include diagnostic information so that when an error occurs an origin of a call to the one or more routines may be more easily and uniquely identified, the method comprising acts of: unassembling the compiled software into a plurality of instructions by taking a sequence of binary bytes representing the compiled software and converting them into logical instructions suitable for execution; searching the unassembled software for one or more instructions that identify at least one call to a routine of interest, wherein the at least one call comprises a parameter portion and a routine portion; modifying at least one of the parameter portion or the routine portion of the at least one call with diagnostic information including a unique stop code, wherein the unique stop code is unique to the at least one call to the routine of interest, and is reserved for use by the operating system, such that if an error, a stop code, or both, caused or issued by the at least one call occurs during normal operation of the compiled software, the error, stop code, or both, can be traced back to the area within the compiled software wherein the at least one call resides; and recording the diagnostic information including the unique stop code along with the at least one call so that the at least one call may be subsequently identified from within the routine of interest.