Inconsistencies in command parsing on Windows

[AlisterH]

Some issues I've noticed trying to run whitebox_tools on Windows and comparing with Linux:

In general it seems that either --wd needs to be used, or paths need to be provided for input and output files (i.e. whitebox_tools never just looks in the current working directory), but

• On Windows NewRasterFromBase seems to require the use of --wd. At least some other tools such as AbsoluteValue will run without --wd, as long as you specify paths for the input and output files. On Linux NewRasterFromBase is the same as the other tools.
• On Windows --wd needs to be specified before the input and output files. On Linux it seems the order of the parameters does not matter.
• When using --wd on Windows the path needs to include a trailing \ character. On Linux the path can end with the name of the directory.

[jblindsay]

Thanks for reporting these issues to me. I must admit that some of them (e.g. the order of the working directory) make me very curious because there is nothing in the code that should make it behave that way, especially the fact that it is different on Windows compared to linux/mac. I don't have ready access to a Windows machine for testing but as soon as I do, I'll dig into this to see if I can replicate. Thanks again for reporting the issue.

[giswqs]

@jblindsay Sometimes if you need access to a Windows machine to compile/test whitebox-tools, you can try VirtualBox and download a free Windows virtual mchine provided by Microsoft. I just tested one of the VM (IE11 on Win7), installed Build Tools for Visual Studio 2017 and Rust, and was able to compile whitebox-tools successfully.

[AlisterH]

On Windows NewRasterFromBase seems to require the use of --wd.

With 0.12.0 this seems to apply to other tools as well, e.g. AbsoluteValue and CreatePlane. Maybe it applies to everything?

[jblindsay]

@AlisterH I believe that this issue has now been resolved. If you can confirm this to be the case, I will close the issue.

[AlisterH]

fixed: testing NewRasterFromBase it seems that -wd can be omitted as long as you provide full paths for -i and -o fixed: the path no longer needs to include a trailing \ character not fixed: fails if -wd is not specified before -i and -o

[jblindsay]

@AlisterH I've had a chance to investigate this behaviour on a Windows machine and I can confirm the inconsistent behaviour with the placement of the --wd flag. NewRasterFromBase works with no issues if --wd is the first parameter or the last parameter. It does not work if it lies somewhere in the middle of the parameter list, UNLESS you use the '/' character as a path separator instead of the Windows default of '\'. I'll admit that I find this behaviour confounding. Looking at my code closely, I cannot figure out what might cause this. I'll keep on investigating it but thank you again for raising the problem.