Bug hunt: MiniMicro directories

SynapticBytes

So I just got home for the day, started up my computer, ran minimicro, copied a file froma USB to my minicro user disk via file explorer, then did a "dir" in minimicro. Here's a screenshot of my file explorer listing vs the minimicro listing

As you can see, the two script files are not showing the in minimicro window. I went down a level and back up, no change, Changed to /sys and back, no change. Tried to load one of the files I couldn't see, got this error

sidenote: cd".." from /usr returns "invalid path" but it seems to have changed directory, since justa "dir" after that keeps returning the error.

Changing to the qixotic subdirectory works, and a dir returns the files there.

Closing minimicro and starting it again restores functionality.

sidenote #2: trying to edit without a file loaded, using anything in quotes returns "Runtime Error: Too Many Arguments [line 1]", which a cryptic way of saying "I can’t edit that, it's lot loaded"...

Russell.

jstrout

Thanks, Russell! The first problem seems to be a matter of not refreshing some internal cache of the directory contents. I'll take a look at that. I haven't run into this in my own Mini Micro work, so it may be a Windows-only issue... 🤔 In the meantime, I bet you could work around it by creating or deleting some file in that directory in Mini Micro through the file APIs.

As for sidenote #2... can you elaborate on that? The edit command doesn't take any arguments (though perhaps it should)...

SynapticBytes

I first noticed the edit problem because I meant to load my script but instead of load, I typed edit.

edit “linetest”

So I tried a few other options, and anything besides just edit gives the message, which makes sense since it takes no parameters. I guess my comment is a bit overzealous, but it would be a handy shortcut to combine the load and edit commands into one by allowing an optional filename and loading directly. Otherwise either ignore the parameter (which could lead to confusion), or state “this command does not accept parameters”.

Russell

jstrout

OK, that makes sense. I've had the same thought, but hesitated, because I thought maybe edit "foo" should edit foo.ms without making it the currently loaded program (more importantly, without wiping out whatever the current program is). Any opinion on that?

SynapticBytes

Yes thats the one problem I guess. There’s no way the loaded program can be any different to the file saved on disk is there? So someone isn’t going to lose changes they haven’t saved?

I think loading and editing is simpler and avoids confusion on which script you are editing if you didn’t specify a filename.

jstrout

Oh yes, the loaded program can (and often is) different from the file saved on disk. This is an important point (and probably a weak point in the design, since it is both important and non-obvious):

The Save & Exit button in the code editor saves the contents of the code editor to the program in memory. It does not save the program in memory to disk. You have to use the save command to make that happen.

All of this is designed to free you to experiment with and hack on your code, and be able to back out:

If you don't like how your edits are going, you can Cancel the code editor to throw them out.
If, after testing your changes, you decide the whole thing was a bad idea, you can shut down the machine, load a different (or the same program), or use reset to discard your changes at that point.

That last one is really the important one... I don't want to make you overwrite your last (probably working) version of a program before you've even had a chance to try your changes. This is why the code editor does not automatically save to disk.

SynapticBytes

Ahh right. I didn’t realise you had to do an external save to commit to file. Since I do all my editing externally, that hadn’t been an issue for me. Well then, you certainly don’t want edit “filename” overwriting unsaved code. But given my ignorance, then load “filename” is just as bad.

jstrout

Possibly what I should do for both of those (and maybe reset too) is have the system prompt you, if you have unsaved changes. Something like:

Unsaved changes: [S]ave, [D]iscard, [C]ancel:

although now it worries me a bit that the S, D, and C keys are all next to each other on a QWERTY keyboard. 😛

SynapticBytes

Haha, well use S, ¥ and 🙀 then instead 😜

SynapticBytes

Just had some other wierd behaviour.

I was trying to convert my test file to my live file, so I saved over the top of the old live file with the new test file. Problem was, I couldn't get the date stamp on the file to update, despite trying several things to touch the file.

Then I tried to delete my test file, but when I did, the live file disappeared! Luckily I still had the editor opened, so I tried to save it again, but it said it was already open. I managed to save it to a new directory and then copy it back, and everything now looks updated. Whether this was a glitch in Notepad++, or some file pointer glitch with MiniMicro I'm not sure, but it did look vaguely similar to the other problems I've encountered.

jstrout

That is odd. When you say you couldn't get the date stamp to update: were you viewing that date stamp through Mini Micro, or through Windows File Explorer?

SynapticBytes

This was all in file explorer, which is why I’m not sure its a minimicro problem, but I wanted to document it for future reference in case it is. I havenkt seen this issue in normal windiws usage but then I haven’t used Notepad++ this often before. I think we can just put a pin in it for now, and I’ll keep reporting any otheranomalies.