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Opening associated file types (.grf) won't display graph

 
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John



Joined: 11 Sep 2005
Posts: 12
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 2:54 am    Post subject: Opening associated file types (.grf) won't display graph Reply with quote

I have had trouble recently when opening a file with an extension associated with DPlot (specifically, the .grf extension) if I do so by double clicking the file without DPlot already being open. I'm using DPlot 2.2.6.9.

All files open without problem if DPlot is already open and I use the standard File-->Open procedure. It's only when DPlot displays the "hints" after trying to display a previously created .grf file through the use of a "cold" (DPlot not already open) double click that there is a problem.

For some reason, there are occasions when DPlot does not display a hint first and the graph is then displayed correctly. Seems to be a problem with the interplay between the hints and the display of the data when first opening DPlot by double-clicking on the associated file.

Thanks in advance for your help.
--John
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--John
Using Dell Optiplex GX 260, Windows XP Professional SP3, Intel Pentium 4 @ 2.66 GHz, 1GB RAM.
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John



Joined: 11 Sep 2005
Posts: 12
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 3:05 am    Post subject: Follow up Reply with quote

Evidently, now that I've just complained, DPlot seems to be cooperating. Didn't even change the programs open on my screen. Just went back to windows explorer and clicked on some additional .grf files and the hints are no longer appearing. Seems reporting the bug cured it. Obviously (I hope--I'm trying not to look too dense), something must still be an issue here. --John
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DPlotAdmin
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

"It's only when DPlot displays the "hints" after trying to display a previously created .grf file ..."

If you're talking about the "Open With" dialog box that comes up when Windows doesn't know of an association for the extension, DPlot has nothing to do with that - it hasn't launched yet and that's all done by Windows.

The registry entry for the file association got deleted somehow. If this happens again, just right-click on your .grf file and select "Open with..." if it is available, or double-click on the .grf file if it isn't. After selecting DPlot check the "Always use the selected program..." box.
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John



Joined: 11 Sep 2005
Posts: 12
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 8:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Perhaps I worded that badly. The .grf extension wasn't broken--if DPlot wasn't running and I double clicked on a .grf file, DPlot would immediately open, but display the hint box first. After closing the hint box, DPlot would not display the .grf file just double-clicked upon. It happened several times, interspersed with single times when the hint box would for some reason not appear first and the .grf file would display correctly upon double-clicking it. Closing DPlot and double clicking on a different .grf file would open DPlot immediately again, but the hint box would reappear and, after closing the box, DPlot again failed to display the clicked-upon .grf file.

Hope that makes better sense. Everything worked as expected excepting, only, the appearance of the hint box and then the non-display of the .grf file which launched DPlot in the first place. But as I indicated, as soon as I submitted a bug report, it seemed the problem had disappeared. Not sure if it will occur again, but if it does I'll let you know.

On a related (non-bug) vein, it would be nice to be able use DPlot as a .grf viewer where one could "scroll" through all the .grf files in a folder without having to open them all at once--identical to other graphics viewers where a click on a right-arrow icon (or equivalent) brings up the next graphic in the folder. It's just a much faster process for finding the DPlot file I need (or comparing two separate .grf files quickly in a forward-back-forward type motion, or just continuing on to another file after one is dealt with) without having to open every DPlot graph in the directory or use the "Window" menu item to do it more cumbersomely. But that's a separate and smaller issue that obviously can be handled as it is now, even if a bit inconvenient. It's what led to the "bug" discovery in the first place.

Thanks,
John
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DPlotAdmin
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 4:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Not sure if it will occur again, but if it does I'll let you know.


You're of course welcome to let me know, but whatever the problem is almost certainly isn't anything to do with DPlot, but with a registry error. It's also possible that some other application wants the .grf extension and is overwriting the information in the registry. In any case the fix is as I mentioned before: on the "Open With" dialog check the "Always use the selected program..." box. That should clear up the problem.

Quote:
... it would be nice to be able use DPlot as a .grf viewer where one could "scroll" through all the .grf files in a folder without having to open them all at once--identical to other graphics viewers...


Good suggestion and one I've taken a look at before. But this is a bit more trouble than it may sound like at first. DPlot files might be just a few hundred bytes, or they may be several megabytes. And we wouldn't want a thumbnail-provider to have to process those large files just to display a small picture in Explorer. So the answer would seem to be to save a small thumbnail, probably a JPEG, whenever you save a DPlot file and embed that JPEG in the DPlot file. The problem there is that DPlot files are just ASCII text, and many more users than you might think edit the things with a text editor like Notepad. At best, saving a file with an embedded image in Notepad would completely foul up the image.

The only way to do this that I can see is to save a thumbnail image separate from the DPlot file, in the same folder, and have the "viewer" look in that folder for a .JPG file with the same filename. Of course a lot of folks will object to cluttering up their hard disks if I do this, so it would have to be made an option in DPlot. There's also the problem of inadvertently overwriting a previously-saved JPG with the thumbnail - and that's where I get hung up. I can't see a way around that... or maybe I can. If the thumbnail is given a suffix of "_thumb", then I'd think overwriting a larger image would be much less of a problem.

Please pardon all my thinking out loud, here Smile. I'll definitely look into this. I have no idea what the requirements are for a viewer or how to tell Windows to use it, but it shouldn't be that difficult.
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John



Joined: 11 Sep 2005
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Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 5:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
"we wouldn't want a thumbnail-provider to have to process those large files just to display a small picture in Explorer"

I was thinking more along the lines of simply being able to access the next .grf file from within DPlot using a forward (e.g. Arrow) and back arrow icon (or equivalent)--no thumbnails required. It would just load the next file in the same folder in Windows alphabetical order. It would still allow a quick way of accessing files from within DPlot w/o having to continually open the relevant folder and open the next DPlot file of interest. No rush, of course--you've got plenty to do and the present situation is adequate. Smile
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