Parser anomaly - bug or encoding glitch?

[Reval]

I'm really not sure if this is a bug; it's certainly a strange glitch in my v1.90 and Windows XP SP3 setup. Other Windows/notepad++ users I've mentioned it to don't seem to experience it.

The dictionary parser accepts no comments or line-spacing. If I try to comment with // or /* */ or space out the entities for better legibility (per normal coding practice in C/Pascal/PHP etc), latest.log just throws up

23:17:29.578 [shipData.load.begin]: Loading ship data.
23:17:30.000 [plist.parse.failed]: Failed to parse ../AddOns/FE_Ships.oxp/Config/shipdata-overrides.plist as a property list.
Parse failed at line 1 (char 2836) - unexpected end of string when parsing dictionary


I save everything as ANSI and no other scripting or programming languages I use ever complain about my source files. So this anomaly is specific to Oolite's parser on my system. I realize XP is 'deprecated' and 'dropped', but I have no intention of ditching this OS, which IMHO is the best MS ever produced and is still - despite naysayers - going strong. In every respect apart from this Oolite 1.90 runs perfectly for me.

Could it be a codepage/encoding problem?

I'm using a Spanish/Latin American install of XP. But as I said, strange errors like this have never bothered me in my other projects.

[another_commander]

Can you please upload the file that causes problems somewhere so that we can have a look?

[montana05]

I'm really not sure if this is a bug; it's certainly a strange glitch in my v1.90 and Windows XP SP3 setup. Other Windows/notepad++ users I've mentioned it to don't seem to experience it.

The first file you sent me in a pm I copied to my editor and (including) comments it worked fine. I would suggest copying it from box and use it for your future updates.

[Reval]

As a template - yes, I thought of that. Guess it might be the only option

[Reval]

I'd upload as you suggest, another_commander, but I also had trouble opening a Box.com account. Made several attempts to have them send my authentication email, but received no emails (not in spam folder either). Could it be the ad-blocker in my browser?

Do you know of other file-sharing services that do not insist on downloading software onto your machine?

[another_commander]

Try uploading the file on wetransfer.com and post the link it will give you.

[Reval]

https://we.tl/t-nAiuXrYz6r

[Reval]

I might also mention that I have Win 7 installed on a laptop, and the parser throws up the same error.

Again, Latin American install...

[another_commander]

Please try this attempted fix. Does it work? https://we.tl/t-rFh8clOgpP

If yes, I'll tell you what you need to do to apply it to any other file that may produce a similar problem.

[Reval]

Thanks. You mean that I should introduce some comments and see what happens?

[Nite Owl]

If all else fails try THIS SITE which has downloads of older versions of Notepad++ that are supposed to be compatible with older versions of Windows. Could be a version thing - newer version of Notepad++ paired with an older version of Windows? Worth a look in any case.

[Reval]

Good suggestioni, Nite Owl, but I installed notepad++ back in 2014 or something. Guess I could try an even older version (I love old versions of things ).

[another_commander]

Thanks. You mean that I should introduce some comments and see what happens?

Yes, and make sure that the text at the bottom right of the Notepad++ status bar reads Windows (CR LF), not Macintosh (CR).

[Reval]

It just says DOS/Windows ANSI (and I can't read the rest because I fiddled with status bar font size (going blind, see?)

[Reval]

Yep, that solved it <sighs with relief> :

../AddOns/FE_Ships_Player.oxp
08:21:56.234 [shipData.load.begin]: Loading ship data.

and nothing more about FE Ships