Hi Ian and thanks for taking an interest. I mean that I tap the file name of a text file from within the files app. This causes J901 to start up immediately.
I should have said File Viewer rather than text editor. This a feature of the files app which displays the content of several files types such as text, photo and PDF files. Now it gets really interesting… I remembered that these same text files were also present in my DropBox. When I went to DropBox and tapped on a file there, it opened correctly, seemingly using the same inbuilt viewer. Also, I have a lot of files with a .gpx file type but contain text. These are displayed correctly so it appears the call to J is made only with files having a .txt ending. Also, If I remove J901 from my system, again, the problem goes away. I can’t try with J702 as it seems to have been removed from the App Store. A most peculiar problem. I hope the above helps in debugging; if you need any more info, or want to watch a screen recording of this phenomenon in action, please let me know. As a workaround until a solution is found, I can copy all my text files from iCloud to DropBox and access them from there. Richard Donovan > On 16 Feb 2022, at 00:28, Ian Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > > Richard Donovan wrote >> when I try to access a text file it triggers J instead of the text editor! > > What exactly do you mean by "access"? That's a highly ambiguous term where > iPadOS is concerned. Read? Write? Edit? > Do you mean: "open" a textfile by tapping on its icon in Apple Files app? > > What exactly do you mean by "the text editor". On iOS/iPadOS there is no > "the" (as Yoda might say). See below. > > In stark contrast, macOS has TextEdit.app – which is indeed "the" text > editor, although there are others (e.g. BBEdit). TextEdit will try to edit > any file you drag'n'drop onto its icon. And ⌘I will let you specify > TextEdit.app as the "owner" for a whole range of inappropriate filetypes & > extensions. iOS/iPadOS emphatically does not allow any of that. > > There's a known bug in j901 for iOS: it interfaces badly with the (Apple) > Files app. This is a messy area, and Apple has changed how Files app > behaves over the last 2 years, especially its a.p.i – how 3rd-party apps > communicate with it. From what you're saying, they've changed iPadOS to > behave differently from iOS. If so, this is a Files app bug, because I can > see no logical reason why iOS and iPadOS should behave differently here. > > There is only one j901 release for both platforms, though Apple does > "fixup" an app between the developer uploading it to App Store, and the > end-user downloading it. Indeed j701 (the forerunner to j901) has been thus > tinkered with - and its App Store entry admits it. > > But there's the little matter of split screens, which iPadOS has to deal > with and iOS doesn't. So iPadOS can actually run both j901 in one screen > (editing a TXT file), and a 3rd-party text editor in the other (editing a > IJS file). I don't believe even Apple has anticipated what fun'n'games that > can lead to. > > What should happen is: when Files app is showing the icon for a data file > belonging to j901 viz. having the extension IJS, IJT, IJX, if you tap on > the icon it should (a) launch j901 (which it did last time I tried it) (b) > tell J901 to edit the tapped file (which, alas, j901 does not respond to, > because Files app is hopelessly buggy here, and the documentation is out of > date. This is a known j901 bug). > > I can't see how this particular j901 bug is causing it to capture all text > files, however. > > iOS (and iPadOS) do not (officially) support the editing of (general) text > files. Apple would rather you didn't know what a textfile was – indeed that > you didn't know what a *file* was (yes, really!) – and thought only in > terms of data owned by a particular app, such as Pythonista, Safari, j901, > etc. --Which isn't just down to the file's extension, e.g. TXT, which > iOS/iPadOS goes out of its way to hide from the end-user. > > However, App Store grudgingly hosts a number of 3rd-party general textfile > editors There's even a Terminal lookalike, and various versions of Python, > which can edit Python source files – and maybe TXT (IJS, IJT, IJX) too. > Which one are you using? It may be pretending ownership of more classes of > textfile than it is entitled to. Or else not defining its ownership in the > proper Apple way (which keeps changing every year or so). > > Which is "your" textfile editor? Until I know, I can't replicate your bug. > > I'll look into it, but it's all a vastly messy area, and one which Apple is > trying to deprecate by stealth. > Meanwhile, here's some things to try. > > 1. Shut down and restart your iPad, to help it sort out its priorities. > Does it now behave like your iPhone? > > 2. Delete j901. Does Files app launch the textfile editor? Repeat step 1. > Problem fixed? > > 3. Reinstall j901 again. Does the problem reappear? > > 4. Delete the textfile editor you're using, then reinstall it. This will > make iPadOS ask it "is this file one of yours?" before it asks j901. Repeat > step 1. Problem fixed? > > 5. The textfile editor ought to have an "open file" option of its own, > which is independent of Files app. Can you open your (previously captured) > TXT file that way? (Perhaps this should be step 0.) > > 4. Download j701 (it's still there on App Store) Which app gets launched > now when you try to edit a textfile? Delete j901. Which now? > > 5. Try every permutation of the above until a pattern emerges. (It's only > what I'm going to have to do.) > > Is anyone running an iPad on a back-version of iPadOS? Can you replicate > Richard's bug? > > Ian Clark > >> On Tue, 15 Feb 2022 at 16:18, Richard Donovan <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Hi >> >> Since I installed J901 on my iPad when I try to access a text file it >> triggers J instead of the text editor! The problem does not occur on my >> iPhone. The version of iPadOS I have is 15.2.1 and the iPhone uses iOS >> 15.2.1 also. >> >> Is this a problem for anyone else? Has J stolen the file association for >> *.txt files?! >> >> Thanks, >> >> Richard Donovan >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
