Amaya doesn't start, probably because of accent in homedir

Dear members,

(Please Cc me in your replies because I can't afford subscribing to this
list and reading it.)

Let's start with a positive thing : Switching to WxWidget was a very
good idea. The old interface had a so unusual and unintuitive feel.
WxWidget gives a fresh look and feel and hopefully solves some stability
issues.

Now the problem. I downloaded the latest Amaya (9.0) and it doesn't even
start. IIRC, the previous version didn't start either. I've check the
FAQ http://www.w3.org/Amaya/User/FAQ.html especially "II.1. Amaya
doesn't start. What can I do?"

Setting manually AMAYA_USER_HOME to C:\TEMP solved the thing. The only
special thing about my setup is that my home dir has an accent in the
path (it contains the string "Stéphane"). Details are below.

* First suggestion : add a notice in the FAQ about the reasons why it
could fail, like the presence of accents and other non-7bit-ascii
characters in the HOMEDIR.

* It would be really nice if amaya had one of the following thing:
-as a minimum and last fallback, an error message instead of failing
silently. The first thing a user does when there are two icons "launch
Amaya" and "uninstall Amaya" and the first one doesn't work is click the
second one and forget it as quickly as he has installed it.
-a fallback mechanism could automatically try some alternate locations,
shorten the default path until it works, trying HOMEDRIVE\TEMP and some
other usual locations. Even if it doesn't always work it will reduce the
number of disappointed people.
-solving the base problem in the first place, which may be caused by the
mess in the internal handling of non 7bit-ascii characters (this is
tricky I guess, although it's theoretically the Right Thing...).

> When you send a bug report please check you give following information:
>
>     * the release number

9.0

>     * the platform

Windows XP Pro 2002 with service pack 2.

>     * a description of the bug: what part of the document is not correctly
> display, what CSS selector is not correctly interpreted, etc.

The app doesn't start.
The exe runs and quits immediately.
No window, no message in console, no nothing.

>     * if possible an example we can use to reproduce the bug

Tested right now.
Make sure amaya is not already running.

C:\Program Files\AmayaWX\WindowsWX\bin>mkdir C:\TEMP\aéb

C:\Program Files\AmayaWX\WindowsWX\bin>set AMAYA_USER_HOME=C:\TEMP\aéb

C:\Program Files\AmayaWX\WindowsWX\bin>amaya.exe

Expected behavior : Amaya starts, opens its window etc.
Observed behavior : the execution returns immediately without any hint.

Interestingly, if an amaya instance is already running (because it was
launched with a different AMAYA_USER_HOME), it does receive the
notification and starts flashing.

>     * if possible the scenario

Well, Amaya will get better and become mainstream. Is that a scenario
you like ? ;-)

Bonne journée.

-- Stéphane Gourichon

Received on Friday, 4 February 2005 09:53:47 UTC