BrowseBox, FileSelect, Network Places?

[Dick Bowman]

Not sure whether this should have just been fired at Support, but maybe having replies publicly viewable will be useful.

For many years I've been contentedly mapping network folders to drive letters, but recently read that this was "old hat" and that the mode du jour was to "Add a Network Location". So - being young and impressionable I started doing just that.

But, there's a problem.

If I want to select a folder within my application by opening up an APL/W BrowseBox it doesn't see my network locations - so they aren't selectable.

On the other hand, if I want to select a file via an APL/W FileSelect everything is present and away I go.

So -

0⊃ Are BrowseBox and FileSelect still favoured objects for user-selection of folders and files?
1⊃ Shouldn't they handle network locations consistently?
2⊃ Have I missed the bleeding obvious again?
3⊃ Or do I have to read some more .NET "documentation"?

[kai]

This is not about Dick's question. It is also not about Dick.

This is about numbering lists, pages and chapters so that the first item starts with zero.
Because Dick did this in his posting I decided to make a statement. However, Dick is not the only one, many people did the same in postings on c.l.a or in articles published on Vector and stuff.

Let's get this straight: this is rubbish! It does not advertise that one is young or progressive, it did does not even tell anything about []IO because []IO is about starting counting in programs, not lists in a posting or pages in an article or chapters in a book. Therefore it's simply nonsense, designed to add confusion without gaining anything.

Sentences like "This is article no 4 in a sequence of 5 articles and therefore the last one" should make clear to anybody that something is wrong here.

Having []IO<-0 is okay in programming because you gain advantages. Starting lists or page numbers with 0 gains nothing but confusion.

Conlusion:

1. Could we please please stop doing this!

2. Thank you

Kai

[DanB|Dyalog]

1. I am with you on that zero, er, I mean on that one

[JohnS|Dyalog]

This is about numbering lists, pages and chapters so that the first item starts with zero.

FYI: there's a fairly non-partisan discussion of this topic in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-based_numbering.

Also:
[a] Some (e.g. Berlin) airports have a Gate-0, perhaps added later.
[b] I tend to stumble in sentences such as: "My grandfather was born in 1878, towards the end of the, er, nineteenth century".

I had the privilege of attending an academic FP conference recently in which they discussed "Plan A" and "Plan succ(A)".

[Vince|Dyalog]

Hi Dick,

On Windows 7, I went to Computer, and did a File->"Add a Network Location". I added a FTP URL.

a) In the BrowseBox, I can select this Network Location under Computer, but only if I set BrowseFor to 'File'.

b) I cannot find it if BrowseFor is 'Directory' (which is the default).

c) I suspect this is a Microsoft issue, but I'll look into it.

Regards,

Vince

[Dick Bowman]

Thankyou Vince, I can confirm that if I set BrowseFor to File it does indeed let me select a Folder which is a network location - logic, but not as we know it cap'n.

I forgot to say in my original post that I suspect what I'm seeing is inherited from Microsoft and is not of Dyalog's doing.

I shall see what the consequences are when I tweak some application settings to use this.

⎕IO←'G'.

[Dick Bowman]

Well here's a fascinating observation...

Use Dyalog's BrowseBox, follow Vince's suggestion and it does what's needed.

But, what if your application uses WPF for the user interface code and you'd like to stay in that environment?

First thing you find is that WPF doesn't seem to offer anything natively - a quick search turns up this discussion http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wpf/thread/2c2c8444-abf3-479e-9095-3b0dc3f93489. Which makes it look like the solution is to either use a third-party add-on or FolderBrowserDialog from System.Windows.Forms.

Always one for taking the easy option I'd used FolderBrowserDialog before, so I thought I'd see how it caters for network locations.

And - it doesn't.

Why do I bother?