4.7 cannot read text files on CD

[discntd]

Developers, take a look at this google groups thread. He is having a "parameter is incorrect" error and the thread concludes with file access times being returned differently from cds/dvds.

Edit: He's also using VS2003.

[idf]

Developers, take a look at this google groups thread. He is having a "parameter is incorrect" error and the thread concludes with file access times being returned differently from cds/dvds.

Edit: He's also using VS2003.

Too bad the thread ends 7/11 with no conclusion.

[bbadmin]

Thanks for the link to the google thread. If the CTime constructor is the culprit, then this build should fix it:

http://www.textpad.com/download/beta/textpad470a.zip

As before, this file only contains TextPad.exe, which should be installed as follows:

1. Open My Computer and browse to your TextPad installation folder.
2. Right click TextPad.exe and choose Copy.
3. Right click again and choose Paste, creating "Copy of TextPad.exe".
4. Extract TextPad.exe from textpad470a.zip into your installation folder.
5. Double click TextPad.exe to start it.
6. From the Help menu, choose About and check the version is "TextPad 4.7.0 (invalid param fix)".
7. Try to open a file on a read-only file system.

Please let us know if it makes any difference.

Keith MacDonald
Helios Software Solutions

[mo]

Allow me to be the first to report the no good news. Sorry. Please don't shoot the messenger.

[idf]

New build didn't make a difference.

I noticed in my Add/Remove Programs an entry for both TextPad and TextPad 4.7, so I uninstalled everything and re-installed. That also made no difference, but it was worth a shot.

[discntd]

I'm suprised you aren't able to reproduce the error. I reproduced it in VMWare with these steps:

1) Install NT4 workstation
2) Upgrade to SP6a
3) Upgrade to IE 5.01
4) Install Textpad 4.7
5) "Parameter is incorrect" error, using Textpad as Admin

Maybe this is because it's mapping to the cdrom drive on my host computer. The host (my main machine) is running XP Pro SP1, VMWare 4, AVG 7.

No luck with the new build.

[cleg]

Gah, I sure hope this problem gets posted to the known problems topic, at least. I don't appreciate stumbling onto this limitation, and then finding out it's been a known problem for many days.

This problem is close to a showstopper for me. I need to access associated filetypes on removable media just as if it is on fixed disk.

Is there any ETA on a patch or other fix for this?

Thanks.

[bbadmin]

We haven't changed any code that affects the behavior of file opening between versions 4.62 and 4.70. The only variable is a change from Visual Studio 2002 to 2003, but whatever has changed only seems to affect a very small percentage of users. Following on from the discussion on the google thread, perhaps some CD-ROMs and read-only file systems do not have valid time stamps for the last accessed or last modified times. On that assumption, we've found a possible scenario that can cause the problem.

TextPad makes a seemingly innocuous call to Microsoft's code to get a filename. Some bright spark at MS thought code reuse was a "good idea", so implemented it by calling some other code which also gets the file size and its creation, accessed and last modified times. This worked fine, if inefficently, for the past 10 years, until another bright spark from MS decided to do some error checking. Now, if a time stamp is invalid, an error is thrown, with the unhelpful message "The parameter is invalid". The release notes for VS 2003 omitted to mention that change, and it did not have any effect on our systems, so TextPad 4.70 was released without taking account of it.

We've modified TextPad to avoid using Microsoft's new code, and made it available from testing from here:

http://www.textpad.com/download/beta/textpad470b.zip

As before, this file only contains TextPad.exe, which should be installed as follows:

1. Open My Computer and browse to your TextPad installation folder.
2. Right click TextPad.exe and choose Copy.
3. Right click again and choose Paste, creating "Copy of TextPad.exe".
4. Extract TextPad.exe from textpad470a.zip into your installation folder.
5. Double click TextPad.exe to start it.
6. From the Help menu, choose About and check the version is "TextPad 4.7.0 (invalid param fix 2)".
7. Try to open a file on a read-only file system.

Please let us know if it makes any difference.

Keith MacDonald
Helios Software Solutions

[discntd]

4.70b fixes it! gg

[mo]

Fixes it for me as well.

[bbadmin]

Phew! Let's hope it works for everyone.

Thanks to you all for your patience while we got to the bottom of this problem. It really is tricky trying to fix bugs that you cannot reproduce - particularly when they're in third party code (i.e. Microsoft's).

Keith MacDonald
Helios Software Solutions

[kanniballl]

Was the project still built/compiled in Visual Studio .Net 2003? Or did you fix it by rolling back to 2002?

Just wondering.

PS.
It works. THANKS!!!

[bbadmin]

The build still uses VS 2003. It just rolls its own version of CFile::GetFilePath.

Keith MacDonald
Helios Software Solutions

[kanniballl]

Cool. THanks.

One last (quick) question...

I'm assuming the new release (invalid param fix) is a release build? I only ask because I remember one of the last ones was an unoptimized version (to find the bug).

Thanks,
Chris

[bbadmin]

Yes, this is an optimized build. We'll package it into an installable release, after it's had a shakeout for a few days.

Keith MacDonald
Helios Software Solutions