Wierd character errors in config files

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask.

Lately after installing CDP's (into TRS2004) I'm noticing that the config.txt files of many objects have an error in which every capital P has become a capital R.

I see words like Rlatform, Rolice, Rroducts etc.

It's only in config.txt as far as I know, and it's not restricted to assets from just one author.

I hardly know where to start in tracking this down - can anyone suggest possible causes and how I might go about rectifying the situation?

Thanks in advance.

~D

 

[ColPrice2002]

Hi D,

How are you viewing the TXT files - notepad?

At work we've had a lot of problems with people using different verison of Word (different languages) and then someone using "asian" text fonts (right to left).

That caused (we think) a ">=" to become "<=" - in a scientific area that doesn't help!

Is it possible that there's a mis-match between the "Unicode" versions?

Cheers,

Colin

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Thanks for the hints Col

I was using the Trainzobjectz syntax-sensitive editor or Notepad to look at the txt files. I saw the crazy P -> R error in both.

I haven't been using Word with anything other than the usual Western fonts and I'm the only one using the PC. I don't know how to check for Unicode conflicts, but I looked under the Win XP Control Panel and it says I'm using English (Australia) for both the regional option and for non-Unicode programs. So all that would seem to be in order.

I wondered also about a virus. I've kept both AVG and Spybot active and up to date at all times.

This afternoon, I tried to reproduce the error by re-installing one of the previous assets where I noticed the error - but blow me down - it all looks normal this time.

Apart from a virus scan, I'm not sure what else I can do until it strikes again.

 

[whitepass]

Next time it happens, try typing a "P".

 

[BobbyB]

I think there is only a 1 bit difference in the ascii code for a P and R. I wonder if this could be a memory chip failing.

BobbyB

 

[BigDAS]

"P" is also the Russian Cyrilic character for Western "R". Are these CDP's in Russian?

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Thanks for those hints too.

No viruses detected so far.

If it's a memory chip problem, I guess it will show itself again at some point and maybe get worse over time. I'll keep an eye on that.

The Russian character thing rings bells - sort of. The first time I saw the error was in the Multi Industry New objects created by Hungarian author Bakaember. In fact, I wrote to him privately about what I thought were typing errors and he said he checked but could not find any errors at his end. So I suspected it was something to do with remnants of Hungarian font codes.

However, since then, I've seen the error in recent objects by other authors (can't recall if they were from English-speaking countries or not).

But frustratingly, I can't reproduce the error and nobody else has reported the same thing, so it's hard to get a handle on it. I tend to think that whatever is wrong, it's something at my end....

If it happens again, I'll try typing a P in the config and see what happens.

~D

 

[seeseeme]

Thanks for those hints too.

The Russian character thing rings bells - sort of. The first time I saw the error was in the Multi Industry New objects created by Hungarian author Bakaember. In fact, I wrote to him privately about what I thought were typing errors and he said he checked but could not find any errors at his end. So I suspected it was something to do with remnants of Hungarian font codes.


~D

He has now uploaded replacement content that is on the DLS.

Hope this helps.

Craig

 

[john259]

A related observation:

A few creators use the slanted open-double-quote and close-double-quote characters inside the name tag's parameter in config.txt. These may be displayed as a set of foreign accented characters, maybe including the Euro symbol. This usually causes the relevant assets to be sorted out of order in lists in Trainz. You can easily fix the problem by editing the file but it's only cosmetic and won't stop the asset from working. If do edit it, leave the normal non-slanted double-quotes around the parameter, for example "Shunter".

John

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Another bit of this jigsaw puzzle.

I happened to be looking at objects made by Madeline Usher. I was browsing the kuid folders with Windows Explorer and opening config.txt with Notepad only, no Trainzobjectz this time.

As far as I know, Madeline is American, so it's unlikely she used non-English language fonts to make the config.

Towards the bottom of every config, is the phrase Sentient Potato (I think it's in the organization tag).

About 50% of the objects I opened had this text correctly, but in the other 50%, it was Sentient Rotato. The other bizzare thing is that not every instance of capital P in the same configs had been erroneously changed to an R.

For the hell of it, I typed a capital P and it came out correctly as a capital P. I guess that rules out a keyboard glitch.

I'm still no wiser about the cause, but I'm wondering if my copy of Content Dispatcher has become corrupt.

 

[Maddy25]

Another bit of this jigsaw puzzle.

I happened to be looking at objects made by Madeline Usher. [...]

That Potato is indeed rather mischievous ...

I spot-checked some of my config files in a binary editor and the 'P' in "Sentient Potato" is just a regular ASCII code 80 (the normal capital 'P'). Could you tell me one of the KUIDs wherein my Potato became a Rotato on your system? Then I can check that one too.

- Madeline (who is now picturing rotating potatos spinning their way across the celestial dome)

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

I'm picturing a new type of french fry!

I'm supposedly at work right now, but when I get home I'm going to make a list of which ones are Rotato and which are still Potato. Maybe there's some correlation against date of installation or something else which gives me a clue about the cause...

Stay tuned.

p.s. I'm sure it's nothing in particular about your objects, I just happened to be looking at them at the time.

p.p.s. I really like your Granular Loader, even wrote you an e-mail about it. Not sure if you got it though, it looked like a university address and may have been filtered out.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Rrotolars Rublishing and rotten Rotatoes

Hmmm...

Of the 106 Maddy25 objects in my collection, 15 turned out to be Rotatoes, 91 were normal Potatoes.

All the Rotatoes had been downloaded and installed recently (on or after 26 March 2008). They include things like the PL Publishing industry, School bus, Basketball court.

There were no errors in objects installed before that date. Whatever corruption has entered my computer has done so recently then. At least I won't have to reinstall my whole collection from scratch.

To check on a possible corruption in Content Dispatcher, I re-installed the PL Publishing Industry by clicking on its CDP file. No errors! I then went through all my usual steps with Trainzobjectz and other utilities to extract $screenshot$.jpg, clean up the config file etc. Again, no Rotatoes in sight!

From this, I conclude that all those utilities and editing procedures are OK.

At this stage I'm running out of suspects, but there is one left. CDP Batcher. This is the utility I use to batch-install a whole lot of CDP's. Maybe it's corrupt? Only a suspicion at this stage, but that's where I'll turn my attention to next.

Detective D

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Installed 71 new items today using CDP Batcher. Not a single error. I've run out of ideas. But if the problem has fixed itself, I'll take that as a win.