Error Opening Example Files

[bacollier]

Just posting this so there will be a record somewhere in case someone else searches as this is not a huge issue but a student did point it out to me today.

Tested using Windoze XP on my desktop and laptop, newest MARK (6.0, reinstalled several times today, and I went back to a MARK 2010 version as well) and tested on 3 other computers here all cleaned and updated today running either XP or newest windoze (sorry, I don't remember what it's called, probably Windows Awesome or something similar), there seem to be some issues with opening any of the models provided in the example files (C:\Program Files\MARK\EXAMPLES\...) using right-click-retrieve. Now, I know the files are there (and these are not the files that you have to pull off phidot but rather the ones installed with MARK) and when I pull them out to my desktop or into a different folder they 'occasionally' work better, but more often than not in all locations I get the below error:

Error opening file C:\PROGRAM FILES\MARK\EXAMPLES\mrk****z.tmp

and when I hit ok, I get

Error: Could not parse output properly

Its rather strange as sometimes some of the models within the same file will open, and some will show the above error, and if I make enough attempts, I can usually get the model to finally open. I cannot find any specificity in model types, it does it on the KAPMEIR example, the Pradel example, the Dipper example, to name a few.

Obviously I have followed Faq 9, I cleared the systems, uninstalled, deleted everything, reinstalled, etc. There may be nothing to do on this, but I wanted to make a note on it in case it came up later. If anyone has any thoughts let me know and I will test them out.

Bret

[cooch]

Just posting this so there will be a record somewhere in case someone else searches as this is not a huge issue but a student did point it out to me today.

Tested using Windoze XP on my desktop and laptop, newest MARK (6.0, reinstalled several times today, and I went back to a MARK 2010 version as well) and tested on 3 other computers here all cleaned and updated today running either XP or newest windoze (sorry, I don't remember what it's called, probably Windows Awesome or something similar), there seem to be some issues with opening any of the models provided in the example files (C:\Program Files\MARK\EXAMPLES\...) using right-click-retrieve. Now, I know the files are there (and these are not the files that you have to pull off phidot but rather the ones installed with MARK) and when I pull them out to my desktop or into a different folder they 'occasionally' work better, but more often than not in all locations I get the below error:

Error opening file C:\PROGRAM FILES\MARK\EXAMPLES\mrk****z.tmp

and when I hit ok, I get

Error: Could not parse output properly

Its rather strange as sometimes some of the models within the same file will open, and some will show the above error, and if I make enough attempts, I can usually get the model to finally open. I cannot find any specificity in model types, it does it on the KAPMEIR example, the Pradel example, the Dipper example, to name a few.

Obviously I have followed Faq 9, I cleared the systems, uninstalled, deleted everything, reinstalled, etc. There may be nothing to do on this, but I wanted to make a note on it in case it came up later. If anyone has any thoughts let me know and I will test them out.

Bret

I just tried the same thing on 5 different computers (all running XP). Can't replicate the problems you're describing at all. All of the examples I tried (I picked 4 at random, including the dipper or course) opened fine with a right-click retrieve.

So, either I'm special (unlikely, except to my kid on good days), or there is a systemic issue you're running into at your end.

[bacollier]

I really don't know what is going on, the systems I tested it on ranged from my office desktop where I use MARK.exe weekly to a student's brand new, clean laptop right out of the box, so I don't think there are admin issues or anything underlying what is happening, but I figured I would toss it up here. I will keep debugging and see what I can figure out. FWIW, this error does not occur on any analyses I (or others) have done previously as when I open old .dbf files from up to 4 years ago everything seems to work, I can only replicate with the example files.

will keep digging, its probably on my end, but I would like to know why...

Also, FYI, offlist I just was emailed that the "\" were not showing up in the directory structure I typed below for at least 1 person when my initial post was emailed out.

[jlaake]

I just replicated the problem on Windows 7 but I found that if I copied the example to my desktop then it all worked fine. At least for me this is an ADMIN issue with windows not wanting to open a file in Program Files. Some programs play nicely with Windows and it will ask if you want to allow the operation but it appears that isn't happening here. If you move the examples directory somewhere else it should work. Gary may want to consider a different place to install the examples to avoid this problem as it is not going to go away.

Also, as Bret mentioned I noticed that in the email posting the backslash "\" is removed from the message. Not a big deal now that I know it but not sure if that is happening at the phidot side or my email server/client.

--jeff

[cooch]

I just replicated the problem on Windows 7 but I found that if I copied the example to my desktop then it all worked fine. At least for me this is an ADMIN issue with windows not wanting to open a file in Program Files. Some programs play nicely with Windows and it will ask if you want to allow the operation but it appears that isn't happening here. If you move the examples directory somewhere else it should work. Gary may want to consider a different place to install the examples to avoid this problem as it is not going to go away.

This is a known issue with admin write permissions for Vista and Windows 7. I think the assumption is that people are not or should not be working with the example files in the same directory into which they're installed, simply because doing so might over-write some of the 'answers' which come bundled with the examples (i.e., the examples directory contains not simply the .inp file, but also the .dbf files with the various models. I seem to recall Gary once saying he assume people would simply copy one or more example files from that directory to wherever they were interested in working with them.

Also, as Bret mentioned I noticed that in the email posting the backslash "\" is removed from the message. Not a big deal now that I know it but not sure if that is happening at the phidot side or my email server/client.

--jeff

Thats a phidot thing. The code I have worked up to parse the posting and generate an email which contains the contents of the post seems to 'get cranky' with the slash. At some point, I'll dig into it. I'm not sure if it treats "\" and "/" the same (guess we'll find out by the email this post generates), but there are so few posts that use them, probably not a big deal (most commonly slashes show up in web links, which are treated quite differently on the phidot side of things).