FileChooser should open up bin/vergil.lnk properly

Ben Denckla submitted the following bug.

The problem is that trying to open $PTII/bin/vergil.lnk does not follow the link. This is because vergil.lnk is a Cygwin symbolic link, so programs like wordpad will not follow the link.

We could figure out how to parse the binary data and open up the file.

The createEffigy() in ptolemy.actor.gui.TextEffigy.java is where the change should go

        if (File.pathSeparatorChar == ';') {
            String extension = getExtension(in);
            if (extension.equals("lnk")) {
                String inAsString = in.toExternalForm();
                // process the Cygwin link here
                in = new URL(inAsString.substring(0,
                                     inAsString.length() - 4)); 
                System.out.println("Saw .lnk file, instead open '" 
                        + in + "'");
            }
        }

However at this point, I don't have the time to parse the Cygwin .lnk format.

A related issue is that FileChooser in Java 1.4.2_06 does not handle native Windows shortcuts properly, but Java 1.5.0_01 does. Note that these short cuts are created by Windows not Cygwin, even though they have the same .lnk extension.

To: "Ben Denckla" <bdenckla@ alum.mit.edu> Cc: ptresearch@ maury.eecs.berkeley.edu From: "Christopher Brooks" <cxh@ eecs.berkeley.edu> Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 16:55:26 -0800 Subject: [Ptolemy] Re: Vergil bug report/feature request: Vergil's "open file" \ dialog doesn't "understand" Windows shortcuts

Thanks, I'll take a look.

This might be a general Java problem with JFileChooser, see

http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?forumID=57&threadID=572689

That's because it IS a file...

The FileChooser API makes no allowance for handling this type of situation... you will need to sub the FileChooser and catch this event... then resolve the link reflected and provide this back to the FileChooser.....

_Christopher

Vergil opens the .lnk (shortcut) file itself as a text file instead of
"following" the link.

Ptolemy version = 4.0.1
OS = Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
java.version = 1.4.2_04 (from Vergil "JVM Properties" window)

Ben Denckla
h 415 282 7498
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w 650 731 6824
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icyphy / ptII

FileChooser should open up bin/vergil.lnk properly #8

_Christopher