Dev-PHP tries to write to its own directory. This is bad program design. Dev-PHP should request the user's temp directory from the OS and use that directory. Also, if Dev-PHP stores settings, it should store them in HKEY_CURRENT_USER, not in an INI file in the program's directory and not in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (unless these are systemwide configurations). Also, templates should be stored in the user's template directory.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Personally I don't like programs that save user settings in the registry. I really prefer ini files. I want programs that just run, even after reinstalling windows or moving the program directory to another drive or computer.
It is quite hard to get all the settings out of an old windows installation, when they are saved in the registry.
I understand that on machines used by multiple users (are there any? :) it isn't the best approach to save everything in the program's folder. A IMHO reasonable comprimise would be saving the settings in the user's "Documents and Settings\username\Application Data" directory (Mozilla does that, too).
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
You are right about the TEMP directory, but i personally like using INI files instead of Registry since you can easily reinstall the program if needed.
Bye!
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I started using dev-PHP when I bought a book about PHP and the program was included on the CD in the book.
By this time, I was using it on my home-PC with unlimited rights. After doing the first steps with PHP, I found that dev-PHP was a great tool!
Well, problems started when I had to re-install WinXP (home) on that PC. This time I decided to create an "admin-account" for doing the installations and a "working-account" for doing all the other things.
Now Dev-PHP couldn't be used anymore.
When I installed it using the admin-account, I couldn't use it from the other account, because the ini-file couldn't be written. When I wanted to close the program, I got error-messages over and over again and had to use the Task-Manager to kill the programm.
Then I tried to install dev-PHP from the non-admin-account.
The first problem was that I couldn't write to C:\Programme\Dev-PHP and therefore I selected a different installation directory c:\PHP-Tool\Dev-PHP. The installation failed again, because some .dll-file should be written to the windows\system32 directory (midas.dll or something like this).
This means, Dev-PHP cannot be used as a normal user of the PC. I definitely don't want to work with an admin-account any more.
When I read that Version 3.0 uses the registry for saving its data, when the .ini-File cannot be written I thought, this would solve the problems and provide separate settings for every user of the PC (Not all users open the same files ;-) )
This new version _could_ work even without Admin-rights. Unfortunately, changes of some options (e.g. tab size) are written to .\conf\GlobalSyntax.ini in the program directory. Of course, this is not possible.
What I want to say, is that storing the data in the registry (or in the application-data directory) of each user instead of one global .ini-file is not a question of personal preference, but a question of "working" or "not working" an I hope you will alter your opinion.
At the moment, I try to use version 3.0 a2 even with it's nasty bugs (no block indenting, syntax highlighting after '<' in expressions or strings, strange shortcuts in the file menu, etc.) and not changing the options. ;-)
Best regards
Gerhard Hempl
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
M$ WIndows platforms that are NT based, use a restriction/access system fo user accounts...
thatswhy you can not be sure if a directory or a registry key can be modified.
either check the permissions (throu winAPI) or use enviormental viariabe %TEMP% for temporary files and %HOMEPATH% + "\dev-php\config.ini" for configuration saving...
those are the special dirs that have foll access for the current user.
Some days ago I got some hint from a friend, how to change access rights for files and directories on a Windows XP Home system. The main problem was, that the home version of WinXP doesn't supply the "access rights" entry in the context menu of explorer. This is only available in the Professional version. :-(
But an old version of winfile.exe from an NT 4.0 CD would do the trick!
With this antique program I changed the privileges for the ini-files and everything works fine now.
Now I can use Version 2.0.8 again. ;-)
Nevertheless I would get problems if a second person would use that PC and Dev-PHP because of the single .ini-file for all users. Therefore your fix will be welcome ;-)
Best regards
Gerhard
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Dev-PHP tries to write to its own directory. This is bad program design. Dev-PHP should request the user's temp directory from the OS and use that directory. Also, if Dev-PHP stores settings, it should store them in HKEY_CURRENT_USER, not in an INI file in the program's directory and not in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (unless these are systemwide configurations). Also, templates should be stored in the user's template directory.
Personally I don't like programs that save user settings in the registry. I really prefer ini files. I want programs that just run, even after reinstalling windows or moving the program directory to another drive or computer.
It is quite hard to get all the settings out of an old windows installation, when they are saved in the registry.
I understand that on machines used by multiple users (are there any? :) it isn't the best approach to save everything in the program's folder. A IMHO reasonable comprimise would be saving the settings in the user's "Documents and Settings\username\Application Data" directory (Mozilla does that, too).
You are right about the TEMP directory, but i personally like using INI files instead of Registry since you can easily reinstall the program if needed.
Bye!
Hello,
I started using dev-PHP when I bought a book about PHP and the program was included on the CD in the book.
By this time, I was using it on my home-PC with unlimited rights. After doing the first steps with PHP, I found that dev-PHP was a great tool!
Well, problems started when I had to re-install WinXP (home) on that PC. This time I decided to create an "admin-account" for doing the installations and a "working-account" for doing all the other things.
Now Dev-PHP couldn't be used anymore.
When I installed it using the admin-account, I couldn't use it from the other account, because the ini-file couldn't be written. When I wanted to close the program, I got error-messages over and over again and had to use the Task-Manager to kill the programm.
Then I tried to install dev-PHP from the non-admin-account.
The first problem was that I couldn't write to C:\Programme\Dev-PHP and therefore I selected a different installation directory c:\PHP-Tool\Dev-PHP. The installation failed again, because some .dll-file should be written to the windows\system32 directory (midas.dll or something like this).
This means, Dev-PHP cannot be used as a normal user of the PC. I definitely don't want to work with an admin-account any more.
When I read that Version 3.0 uses the registry for saving its data, when the .ini-File cannot be written I thought, this would solve the problems and provide separate settings for every user of the PC (Not all users open the same files ;-) )
This new version _could_ work even without Admin-rights. Unfortunately, changes of some options (e.g. tab size) are written to .\conf\GlobalSyntax.ini in the program directory. Of course, this is not possible.
What I want to say, is that storing the data in the registry (or in the application-data directory) of each user instead of one global .ini-file is not a question of personal preference, but a question of "working" or "not working" an I hope you will alter your opinion.
At the moment, I try to use version 3.0 a2 even with it's nasty bugs (no block indenting, syntax highlighting after '<' in expressions or strings, strange shortcuts in the file menu, etc.) and not changing the options. ;-)
Best regards
Gerhard Hempl
Thank you for taking the time to explain the bug. This will be fixed for Alpha 4.
and 2.0.9
Just a short thing:
M$ WIndows platforms that are NT based, use a restriction/access system fo user accounts...
thatswhy you can not be sure if a directory or a registry key can be modified.
either check the permissions (throu winAPI) or use enviormental viariabe %TEMP% for temporary files and %HOMEPATH% + "\dev-php\config.ini" for configuration saving...
those are the special dirs that have foll access for the current user.
otherwise %ALLUSERSPROFILE% + "\dev-php\config.ini"
foll = full
Thank you for fixing it!
Some days ago I got some hint from a friend, how to change access rights for files and directories on a Windows XP Home system. The main problem was, that the home version of WinXP doesn't supply the "access rights" entry in the context menu of explorer. This is only available in the Professional version. :-(
But an old version of winfile.exe from an NT 4.0 CD would do the trick!
With this antique program I changed the privileges for the ini-files and everything works fine now.
Now I can use Version 2.0.8 again. ;-)
Nevertheless I would get problems if a second person would use that PC and Dev-PHP because of the single .ini-file for all users. Therefore your fix will be welcome ;-)
Best regards
Gerhard