BST does not open files from folders with special characters like

StefanL38 · 2011-06-18 04:06

Hi,

I would like to use bst as it has a serial terminal that connects automatically between compiling

I just unzipped the bst.exe and started it.

Then I tried to open a *.spin-file from the main menu file open -choosing a file and click ok
but the file is not loaded.

If a do a double-click on a file that is listed in the tab on the left the file gets opened.

For somebody who is new to the propeller this behaviour "not opening a file" is a reason to
"throw it in the trash-can-reason"

To be honest this is one of the very few cases that I get upset. Opening a file from the main-menu is
one of the most basic things that a program should be able to do - reliably independent of
configuration.

Is this a known issue?

Do I have to adjust some options to make it work?

I'm using windows 7 ultimate.

best regards

Stefan

kuroneko · 2011-06-18 04:12

Works for me (Vista/JPN, non-admin), 0.19.4-pre14.

Heater. · 2011-06-18 05:42

Works here. BST 0.19.3 on Debian.
Been using BST a long time and never heard of such a problem.
How are your file permissions?

StefanL38 · 2011-06-18 06:53

I tried 0.19.4-pre 14 exact same results.

filepermission is full access
I don't think it is a problem with the filepermission. If I doubleclick on any file it is opened.
and if I don't know enough on how to change it (except clicking on properties of the folder and check on full access)

no other software had any problems with open or close files. Even software like audacity, isobuster ultraedit that where NOT installed but only copied to a folder
can open and save files.

another problem Occured if I try to save a file I get an errormessage can't save file C:\\....

So maybe bst tries to load from a path C:\\ wich of course does not exist.

I think here the problem is the double-slash instead of a single flash

I guess bst.exe uses different Windows API-functions to open/save files. But here I'm lost. My knowledge ends at "windows is bloated with OS-API-functions"

best regards

Stefan

Heater. · 2011-06-18 08:11

I'm very surprised you have this problem. BST has been in use for a long time by many people and such an issue would have been flagged a long time ago and BradC has been very generously fixing issues as soon as they arise.
Apart from trying it on a different machine/OS I don't know what to suggest.

smbaker · 2011-06-18 08:46

Having never tried it before, I just tried BST from a Windows 7 Ultimate machine and experienced no problems opening files. Using File:Open presented an ordinary-looking "Open existing file" dialog where I could easily type in a path long-form, or navigate to a directory by the usual pointing and clicking. It opened my spin file and (after setting the library path to where Prop tool's library was) built my project without difficulty.

In fact, the optimizer produced about a 10% savings in code size over prop tool. Probably due to dead code elimination. This might be handy for those problems where I start to walk close to the line on space requirements.

Only issue I had was it picking a bizzarely-large and ugly font on startup. I changed it to Courrier New and it looked much better.

What location did you place the executable in when you unzipped it? Windows has been known to do some weird things with virtual folders and paths at times, maybe something that could cause the program grief getting it's current directory. BST does seem to store the last known directory somewhere (it remembers where I opened my last spin project), although I don't know where it stores this information. A quick registry search didn't reveal it, nor do any INI files seems to have been created in the usual places.

potatohead · 2011-06-18 11:58

Just ran a test on the latest version downloaded from Brad's site.

Win 7 Pro. I've not done anything prop related on this machine yet. Actually, I've not done much besides run some virtual machines, and some CAD software. My old thinkpad is the Prop machine full time now. It runs BST perfectly as well, and it has prop tool, USB drivers, and video capture, etc... Been propping on that one for years. It runs Win 7 Pro, and it also runs XP, which is what it's running now, because it's been taken out of work service, I prefer XP.

Anyway... I put BST on the desktop, and tried a drag and drop. Spin file, onto BST.exe. worked, but I did get the "publisher not verified" dialog, which is standard for this OS. Opened BST, and did another drag 'n drop, which sort of worked. Got access violation, but I could ignore and proceed. Probably a minor bug there.

Finally, file open, nav to file, also on Desktop, worked just fine.

Here's my environment:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Doug Dingus&gt;set
ALCKPath=C:\Program Files\Lenovo\AutoLock
ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\ProgramData
APPDATA=C:\Users\Doug Dingus\AppData\Roaming
CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files
CommonProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
CommonProgramW6432=C:\Program Files\Common Files
COMMPath=C:\Program Files\Lenovo\Communications Utility
COMPUTERNAME=DOUGDINGUS
ComSpec=C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe
configsetroot=C:\Windows\ConfigSetRoot
FMS_HOME=C:\PLM\TEAMCE~1\fcc
FP_NO_HOST_CHECK=NO
HOMEDRIVE=C:
HOMEPATH=\Users\Doug Dingus
JAVA_HOME=C:\PLM\TEAMCE~1\install\install\jre
LOCALAPPDATA=C:\Users\Doug Dingus\AppData\Local
LOGONSERVER=\\DOUGDINGUS
MpConfig_AppDataRoot=C:\ProgramData
MpConfig_ProductAppDataPath=c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Microsoft Antimalware
MpConfig_ProductCodeName=Torino
MpConfig_ProductPath=c:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client\Antimalware
MpConfig_ProductUserAppDataPath=C:\Users\Doug Dingus\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Mic
rosoft Antimalware
MpConfig_ReportingGUID=A5B0F099-FF9B-4012-85B6-0C1D31E422E7
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=8
OS=Windows_NT
Path=C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program File
s (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Window
s;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Progra
m Files\Intel\WiFi\bin\;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Intel\WirelessCommon\;C:\P
rogram Files\ThinkPad\Bluetooth Software\;C:\Program Files\ThinkPad\Bluetooth So
ftware\syswow64;C:\Program Files\Broadcom\WHL\;C:\Program Files\Broadcom\WHL\sys
wow64;C:\Program Files\Broadcom\WHL\SysWow64\;C:\Program Files\Broadcom\WHL\SysW
ow64\syswow64;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Services\IPT\;C:\Program Files (x86)\
Common Files\Lenovo;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Ulead Systems\MPEG;C:\Pr
ogram Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;C:\SWTOOLS\ReadyApps;C:\Program Files (x86
)\Common Files\Acronis\SnapAPI\
PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=AMD64
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=Intel64 Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7, GenuineIntel
PROCESSOR_LEVEL=6
PROCESSOR_REVISION=2a07
ProgramData=C:\ProgramData
ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files
ProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)
ProgramW6432=C:\Program Files
PROMPT=$P$G
PSModulePath=C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\
PUBLIC=C:\Users\Public
P_SCHEMA=C:\Program Files\Solid Edge ST4\Schema
READYAPPS=C:\SWTOOLS\ReadyApps
SESSIONNAME=Console
SWSHARE=C:\SWSHARE
SystemDrive=C:
SystemRoot=C:\Windows
TC_DATA=\\tcx00r\plm\tcdat
TC_ROOT=C:\PLM\TEAMCE~1\
TEMP=C:\Users\DOUGDI~1\AppData\Local\Temp
TFS_DIR=C:\Program Files\ThinkVantage Fingerprint Software\
TMP=C:\Users\DOUGDI~1\AppData\Local\Temp
TSMPATH=C:\Program Files\ThinkPad\UltraNav Utility
TVT=C:\Program Files (x86)\Lenovo
TVTCOMMON=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Lenovo
USERDOMAIN=DougDingus
USERNAME=Doug Dingus
USERPROFILE=C:\Users\Doug Dingus
windir=C:\Windows
windows_tracing_flags=3
windows_tracing_logfile=C:\BVTBin\Tests\installpackage\csilogfile.log

I didn't trim it, so you will see some stuff. Compare your user environment on those things that are common. Maybe something there.

Do you have user account control turned on, or off. Do you have the setting where publisher cannot be verified software is blocked?

I would turn both of those off, but do be aware that turning off UAC does leave the machine more open to nefarious software.

Try the "run as administrator" option you will find for BST on the right click menu. Also "compatability options" is not a bad idea.

Actually, before you do any of that, try creating a new user, log on, put a file on the desktop, and bst, and repeat what I did. Permissions will be good on the desktop. If that works, something about your particular user environment is at issue. If both work, but only on the desktop, then you've got a permission problem.

(and yes, I'm ticked about the hostname this machine will very soon be known as "osgood"

I'm not the one that ran it through the registration)

StefanL38 · 2011-06-18 15:46

Hi all,

thank you very much for your suggestions.

I tried compatibilty mode and "run as admin" but this did not help.

I think it is a problem of permissions. Most of my spin-files are in a folder C:\Windows.old\Users\stefan\Downloads\Software\_Propeller-downloads\000__users

In earlier times my notebook had vista
When installing win 7 ultimate the vista system-folder got renamed to windows.old. But I guess some restrictions on use stayed there.
The strange thing is that opening files from subfolders of C:\Windows.old\Users\stefan\Downloads\Software\_Propeller-downloads\000__users
with software like UltraEdit, Notepad etc. is no problem and saving is no problem too.

If I open files from a more usual folder like c:\temp it works. So maybe it has to do with the path-length.

What is still annoying me is that the choose folder dialogs don't have a textinputfield.

I'm used to type a part of the filename in the tool everything.exe example "cnc spin"
everything filters my 750.000 files on the harddisk in 0,1 seconds down to the five files containing "cnc spin"
right-click and choose open with...

This is much faster than clicking from subfolder to subfolder to subfolder to ...

Now I have a different problem. The font looks strange and seems not to be the parallax-font. And there is lot's of space between each character.
How do I adjust that?

best regards

Stefan

potatohead · 2011-06-18 16:24

I think you can resolve your permission problem by going to the root of that windows.old folder, selecting properties, security, advanced, then add "everyone", and then specify full control. When you exit that, it will ask about subfolders and files. Check that box, and sadly it will take a while, but it will write the full control bit onto everything, resolving your problem.

I believe that's some artifact of the upgrade, where permission bits for system objects that no longer exist are there. Some API calls are smarter than others about this... Some of them read the stated permissions and fail, even when EFFECTIVE permissions would allow the action. Have seen this many, many times before, and funny, I see it most often on enterprise software, where I am convinced that the word "enterprise" means crappy!

Not much to be done about the lack of the filter. Either a tool runs with the MFC, or not, and if not, probably doesn't have that particular feature. I use it too, when I can get it; otherwise, I'll create a few shortcuts, filter with explorer and double click. Once you've done that a little, it's just as fast, if not faster than the file open deal. YMMV, but maybe that gets you to a happy place!

You have the parallax font right?

I've noted the characters render a bit differently. I think this is due to a whole lot of things. Here are two screen captures from my newly built reference system. This one is plain vanilla, XP, latest Prop Tool, Latest BST, Parallax Font, and USB drivers. Everything is default, "out of the box" BST does not use bold for some syntax highlighting where the Prop Tool does. Other differences are gonna come down to the renderer Brad used. I find I like it after a time, returning to the Prop Tool leaves me the impression of "thick" fonts, and the reverse happens when I'm using Prop Tool a lot.

If you see what I see, I think that's normal.

Hmmm... Well, enjoy the nice hills of Scotland. I'll leave the attachment mistake.

potatohead · 2011-06-18 16:34

There is some small control in BST for fonts. I've attached the options under "IDE Preferences" for how I like to run it. And a screen capture of the nicer character rendering. The Parallax font is selected, at a pitch that works for my display, and I selected "bold".

Shown on the dialog, I've also picked the two check box options at bottom.

That's probably as good as it gets, unless you go and select some other font.

StefanL38 · 2011-06-18 17:20

OK finally I got it.

the folder contains special characters like

potatohead · 2011-06-18 17:54

Well, that's good info. Glad you found out what the cause was.

BST does not open files from folders with special characters like

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