#5 Under Windows, RP1 mangles file names in properties file

[Andy Gombos]

If you specify a floor plan on the command line, or in
an ini file, it is read by SimProperties. This also
will probably apply to other paths like the robot
class paths.

You have a Windows path
C:\rossum\floorplans\WhiteRoom.txt

When read into SimProperties, this becomes
C:rossumfloorplansWhiteRomm.txt

When you start the GUI, SimSession tries to find the
floor plan. It can't due to the fact that there are
no path delimiters (it oddly looks just for the /)

An error is logged, but it may never appear before you
are dropped with System.exit(-1).

A temporary fix is to place this line

name = name.replace(File.separator.charAt(0), '/');

into the SimProperties file in the extractString()
method. It should be line 205.

Gary should have a patch up soon, however.

Andy

[G. W. Lucas]

Logged In: YES
user_id=12218

I'd like to thank Andy Gombos who not only reported this
problem, but also tracked down the solution. I'm sure
that everyone who has ever programmed a computer can
appreciate his comment of the situation:

Blargh! The problem is inherent in the Java Properties class.

I've included an explanation of the problem, and a work around
below.

Normally, the name of the floor plan file that the users intends
RP1 to use is specified in a properties file (RP1.ini, etc.)
as a single name. For example

floorPlanFileName=trinity2001.txt

RP1 reads this file from the FloorPlan directory (folder) included
in the RP1 code distribution. If you wish you may add your
own file to this folder. Of course, it is not always convenient
to put a file into the Rossum hierarchy. In that case, you
can specify a floor plan name using a path name such as:

c:/MyFolder/MyFloorPlans/trinity2001.txt

Windows programmers will immediately note that the slashes
are going in the wrong direction. When he discovered the
bug, Andy tried something like this:

c:\MyFolder\MyFloorPlans\trinity2001.txt

The problem is that the Java Properties class (the Java utility
that RP1 uses to read its properties files) treats the
backslash as a special character and removes it from the
string. Thus, the string above would be rendered as

c:MyFolderMyFloorPlanstrinity2001.txt

Why such a weird behavior? It probably reflects the fact that
Java originated in a Unix community, where the forward slash is
used to separate files, rather than in a Windows community.
For now, we have to either write our own version the Java Properties
class (Andy is thinking about doing just that) or come up
with a work-around solution.

Work Arounds:

1. use the forward slash syntax such as

c:/MyFolder/MyPlans/trinity2001.txt

this WILL work under Windows... the Java file-related classes
map the string appropriately before passing it to the OS.

2. escape out the backslash as you would if you were
specifying the string in a C function or Java class:

c:\\MyFolder\\MyPlans\\trinity2001.txt

Thanks to Andy's work, we also found that this bug applies
when you type the floor plan path name on the DOS command line.
Now, that bug is one that we CAN fix. So I will submit a patch
in the next week. In the mean time, we recommend that
if you wish to enter a full path name at the DOS command line,
you simply quote the string and use the forward slash

c:\DosPrompt java Server -f "c:/MyFolder/MyPlans/trinity2001.txt"