Tkn CommandLine$ issue

[Rod]

Chris posted here, 16-Nov-2018, and in the Liberty Basic forum, also 16-Nov-2018, (which I don't follow) about the change in how the two recent issues of the programs (LB4.1.x and JB2.0) deal with parameters passed into them differently than the previous versions. Since I am not a member in LB I will post my query here. (if someone wants to repost this in LB I have no problem with that).



I still believe that adjusting paths to token files should be done in a command line using switches to modify the execution and that the parameters that CommandLine$ picks up should be pure user space as was in V1.0. If in my use of CommandLine$ in V2.x I want to provide my program with any path to my data files then I must first insert a, unnecessary for me, path to a token file which is already in the same directory as the executable as was found in the V1.0 documentation I read.



Since I don't think I have seen anything here (or LB forum) from a Developers I don't have a feeling for how this could go. Not sure if it will get addressed or declared a new feature, then documented and left in as is?



thanks for listening

\s\Rick

And from Chris

Ok, I definitely see the issue here, and it's not just an issue in JB, either, but it's an issue that was probably introduced in LB v4.5.1, which JB2 is based on.



It doesn't occur in LB v4.04, which is what JB1 was based on.



Your explanation in the README you provided appears to be correct: if a backslash appears anywhere in one of the parameters passed, LB/JB will automatically assume that it's supposed to be the path to the TKN, and will then error out.



EDIT: More accurately, it will automatically assume that everything before the final backslash in the whole CommandLine$ string is part of the "Default Directory", where the TKN should be found. If you manually count that out, and make a folder with that "name", and stick the TKN there, it will launch.





I just made a test application that demonstrates a ton of issues, that I'm going to report on the main LB page, as well as here.



EDIT2: Oh, even better. Quoting the TKN path lets it launch properly, but then it completely ignores the rest of the CommandLine$, and doesn't pass it to the program.



EDIT3: Made a post on the LB forums about this bug, as well as detailing a bunch of examples. libertybasiccom.proboards.com/thread/352/command-line-path-parsing-bugs

[donnybowers]

There was always a problem with 'TKN not found' when you tried to launch a LB executable from another LB executable in different directory. I never knew you could use commandline$ to overcome it. I usually use a simple small executable I made with another language called "go.exe" that reads the name of the program I want to run from a sequential file and then executes my program from within the same directory both are in.

I have no clue whether this issue with the slashes is a bug or intentional, but in this case, if I was trying to pass a path to a program, I would try passing it in using spaces (or some other character) and then convert the spaces to slashes after retrieving from commandline$. Just a thought. Sorry I haven't tried it. I'm currently only running LB5 alpha.

Now that I know about this I'm going to have to try it. It sounds like a solution that could solve the issue I've always had with not being able to run a LB program from within another LB program in a separate directory.

[Chris Iverson]

Jun 3, 2019 21:26:40 GMT -5 donnybowers said:

I would try passing it in using spaces (or some other character) and then convert the spaces to slashes after retrieving from commandline$. Just a thought. Sorry I haven't tried it.

This partially works, as documented in my tests linked to in Rod's quote of my post.

If you quote the TKN file, it WILL launch the program successfully, but it will throw away the rest of the commandline, so if you wanted to pass anything ELSE to your program(a switch/argument or a filename to operate on), you wouldn't get anything.

[alincon]

I hope we will be able to pass parameters to the quoted TKN file in LB5!
r.m.