Arbed.exe - Don't know what to do with this file

Hello All, I just downloaded ArbedWin.zip, and after unzipping and executing Arbed.exe on the Windows command prompt, I got a dialog:
With no title. Message: Don’t know what to do with this file Arbed.exe. Windows 10, ver on command prompt shows: Version 10.0.10586.
Any insights would be appreciated. -Simon

Arbed is a normal Windows app. Have you tried to start it by double-clicking?

This is not an Add-On. This is an applicaton.

Have-you read the web site description for Arbed use ?

Why ?

I was awaiting a double click on the .exe just like any other standard Windows application.

isnt a normal wndows or command line message

What does your ‘command line’ look like?

Sounds to me like you fed it something it cannot open… a compiled exe perhaps?

From the docs:

Thank you all for the feedback.

I tried again on another Windows 10 laptop, downloaded the zip file, opened a CMD.exe command prompt, unzipped it, and typed Arbed.exe and pressed Enter (still in the command prompt), and I got the same error. Try it yourself.

So, I tried it thru the Windows Explorer, by double-clicking on the same Arbed.exe file, and it did launch the application and opened a window titled “Arbed Drop Pad”.

Thank you all for the efforts! Cheers, -Simon

That message is printed by Arbed, from its OpenDocument handler, with MsgBox(). I wonder why it would even be invoked if Arbed is called from cmd.exe. Instead, it should print some helping text in the cmd.exe’s window.

Ah - it’s because no arguments were passed - in that case, Arbed assume it’s run as a GUI app and not from the cmdline. Then it processes the cmdline args, which contain its own name (Arbed.exe), and it balks at that.

Does anyone with more Windows experience have a suggestion how an app can tell when it’s run from cmd.exe vs. double clicked in Explorer? On the Mac, I can tell by seeing a special argument ("-psn") when it’s run as a GUI app, for instance.

Hi Thomas,

Place this code in the Window Open event, and it should work for you. I tested it on Windows 10 with Xojo 2018 Release 2:

Dim x as string x = System.EnvironmentVariable("Prompt") If x = "" Then MsgBox "Program is Running in Explorer" Else MsgBox "Program is Running from command prompt" End if

I just released Arbed 1.8.9 - this should now print some help when invoking it from the cmdline.

It also fixes some issues with the Retina (Cocoa) version.

http://www.tempel.org/Arbed/