• From: Belgium
  • Registered: 2003-10-06
  • Posts: 6

Topic: Ticklish parser file

Um okay I'm not sure if 'ticklish' is the appropriate term, but... every time I try to edit my parser file (and this includes -I tested all kinds of things- adding or deleting a single character in a comment line) it's like it disrupts the whole thing and it doesn't work at all anymore.

Specifically, trying to view a post after even such a tiny change gives a white page with the subject of the topic, the author and number of pages and posts, and that's all; which is the same result returned when the parser.php file is renamed or deleted.

Same thing happens if I open the file (I use Macromedia Dreamweaver, by the way, and editing any other page has had no adverse effect in the past except when I did something really stupid, which has happened but never with irreversible consequences), add, let's say a space, in a comment line to be on the safe side of things, save the document, do 'undo' and save again, restoring the file to its supposedly original pristine state...

Except it screws it up. Why? I can't see anything that would explain this in logical terms. I'm a scientist, I need a rational explanation. Because this just doesn't make sense. It makes my brain hurt.

My brain is what keeps me fed.

Please help me save it from imploding! Tell me what's wrong! (and even better, how to fix the problem)

thanx

  • From: 127.0.0.1
  • Registered: 2001-11-02
  • Posts: 9,167

Re: Ticklish parser file

Could it be that you are somehow changing the access rights to the file when you overwrite it?

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

Rickard's Website

  • From: Belgium
  • Registered: 2003-10-06
  • Posts: 6

Re: Ticklish parser file

I thought about that but I checked, they're still the same after as before the modification... I even tried changing the permissions (using the 'get info' panel; I'm running mac OS X.2) and doing that does NOT interfere with the file working.

It's really very odd. At first I thought it was some kind of protection against editing, but that didn't really make sense given that some of the mods require editing the file, and no one else seemed to have reported this problem...

I'm going to try tickling the file with some other text editor, we'll see if that changes anything... though I don't see why Dreamweaver would be messing things up, and only with that particular file, on top of things. I'll keep you posted...

  • From: Belgium
  • Registered: 2003-10-06
  • Posts: 6

Re: Ticklish parser file

Huh. Well there you have it. I just edited the file using TextEdit, added a smiley, and, yeah, it's all good. No problem at all.

*hits head repeatedly against wall*

Ouch.

Funny. I just remembered the other time I had a problem with a file that everybody else was fine with... one of the PunPoll mod files. It had EOF tags and I never got it to work; eventually I just replaced the bit of code that had EOF tags with the equivalent using print statements in the php. Sloppy but it solved the problem.

Just a sec... *checking a faint suspicion*

Oh yeah, there's definitely something with the EOT and EOF tags that Dreamweaver has a problem with: I've recently added a photo gallery to my forum and I intended to modify the login system so it would eat the punbb cookie, but I was getting weird blank page errors whenever I tried to edit the login.php file. Things just now connected in my brain, so I checked and yeah, that login.php file uses EOT tags. It's the only thing in common between all these files... and editing files that don't have these tags doesn't cause any problems. Things are coming into focus!

I guess I'll check the Dreamweaver bug reports, since it seems to be a pretty specific problem. I guess if anyone else comes up with this problem, at least you can tell them it's probably not the pun code, but the editor's problem. Or is my logic all screwy? I'm not ready to discount that possibility yet. I still don't understand the how and why of this bug...

  • From: 127.0.0.1
  • Registered: 2001-11-02
  • Posts: 9,167

Re: Ticklish parser file

I'm not sure I understand. EOF and EOT tags?

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

Rickard's Website