bug(developer): Keyman Developer 17 fails to build when installed in a path with an ampersand

[eugenesvk]

Describe the bug

Keyman Developer 17 uses this ancient joke of a shell called command prompt, which fails at simple things like symbols in paths (ironic for a keyboard project heavy on symbols), so if you install it in a path containing & then building a keyboard invokes kmc.cmd, which uses command prompt and fails with a very helpful message of The system cannot find the path specified. without even indicating that its kmc.cmd that's at fault

Reproduce the bug

1. Install Keyman Developer app on Windows in a path with &
2. Build any project

Expected behavior

Just call node directly from the app, why do you need to shell out?

• No error
• More informative message

Related issues

No response

Keyman apps

• [ ] Keyman for Android
• [ ] Keyman for iPhone and iPad
• [ ] Keyman for Linux
• [ ] Keyman for macOS
• [ ] Keyman for Windows
• [X] Keyman Developer
• [ ] KeymanWeb
• [ ] Other - give details at bottom of form

Keyman version

17.0.326

Operating system

Windows 10

Device

Any

Target application

Any

Browser

Any

Keyboard name

Any

Keyboard version

Any

Language name

Any

Additional context

Quick googling on how to escape & lead to nothing, tried variable substitution with set "escapedRoot=%root:&=^&%" etc

But symlinking to a path without & and launching from there works

[mcdurdin]

Thanks for the feedback. We won't attempt to fix this, as we are investing in a new web-based IDE for the future, and as you noted, a workaround is to not use a folder with symbols in the name. I will leave the issue open though, as documentation of the workaround.