Oh, this bugs me no end!

[2buzz]

Re: Oh, this bugs me no end!

Regular expressions are quite a puzzle the first time around.

Unfortunately, each program tends to have little exclusively different ways of doing things. For example, if one was matching "a.+b" (meaning from "a" to "b" with any number of characters between) in the string "adbcccbr", some programs will match "adb" some might match "adbcccb", others may match either, depending how you ask.

Regular expressions are very powerful. REXX does not support them natively, but there are always addins.

GREP supports regular expressions.

Take care with any program you work with. Many will try to break your file into "lines" if they see binary data that decodes to <CR>, <LF>, or any combination. Others will automatically declare a line break at some fixed number of characters. If a string for which you are scanning crosses one of these boundaries, the best outcome will be that you'll miss that string. You could end up with some extra line end characters in your file.

Some programs will have maximum string lengths which might seem generous at 65K, but if your file is longer than that, you can't do the obvious and read the whole thing into a string variable.

REXX can read by line or character.

[ChristinaS]

Re: Oh, this bugs me no end!

Ah, the good ole easy days of fixed record sizes! :D

[2buzz]

Re: Oh, this bugs me no end!

Yeah, with punched cards there never was much mystery about record length.

For those who had a bit of free time and paid close attention in class or as they read the JCL and HASP manuals, there were some interesting "features" that could be exploited at the card reader in order to cause heartburn for others.

[ChristinaS]

Re: Oh, this bugs me no end!

Aw, never was much into experimenting with THOSE.

But a great many years ago I was testing some rather low level utility IO routines on our IBM mainframe, and of course they were insufficiently documented.

Like you'd know that an argument was meant to give the length of the string that was to be returned in the red operation, but nothing mentioned a maximum value. It was known by hearsay to be a particular number (no, not a power of 2). So I decided to see what happens if I request a larger value than that, expecting an error mesasge of sorts. Errr... I crashed the whole system it seems. Several times. Didn't know it was me either until the supervisor of the computing center came to me and told me to stop whatever I was doing as I'd just written all over the OS region it apparently - the overflow wasn't contained so I overflowed out of my user region into common grounds. Next day a fix for the obvious bug came in. That was a student-built OS by the way that made it to commercial distribution eventually and my company was using it. Generally quite nice but a little buggy it seems. :D

[2buzz]

Re: Oh, this bugs me no end!

There is a legend describing an informal contest at Princeton University to discover the minimum number of punched cards needed to crash the system.

The winner used a single card. One would think that it executed a devilish program, but it was a simple job card. The card was so effective that the system was down before the card settled in the stacker.

[BillW]

Re: Oh, this bugs me no end!

Christina and 2buzz,

As for editing the nra file, you can just add the ".txt" extension to that file. However, I tried editing the file, and it still does not work.

I also wrote Nero customer support on another problem I'm having with Nero-Showtime2 not recognizing my DVD drive(s) (drives are fine, two other programs work - its a problem with Nero). Anyway, I also asked about the nra file problem three times now :vmad: , and they seem to be ignoring my questions.

I don't know if they don't understand English (being that they are in Germany), although their responses seem articulate enough. In my third (and final) try to get an answer from them, I also asked if they can provide me with the file structure for the nra files.

It's highly doubtfull that they will give me that info, but if I do, I'll post it.

As for my 2 cents regarding languages, I myself am a Visual Basic fan. VB is quite versitle. Even (DOS based) Quick Basic is strong enough to be able to manipulate any file, bit by bit.

[ChristinaS]

Re: Oh, this bugs me no end!

Opening it in Notepad is not the problem, no matter what extension it has. But the file has binary data which cannot be edited as text. Even just editing the text part and even just doing this in a hex editor will damage the byte alignment.

The file structure might help with reading the file (but I don't actually need that). I'd have to write programs for that to be of any practical use and frankly I don't feel like embarking on that. Nero ought to provide a tool since this is a serous enough shortcoming of their product.

In my nra files I may also have settings for various effects I apply to some of the tracks, cd text, etc., so it's not just the file names that I need. Oh, well, not really a big deal, but, as a computer professional myself, I don't like loose ends. It's sloppy work.

[donny]

Re: Oh, this bugs me no end!

I know I am repeating myself but this works for me being that I open compilation with files that are long deleted from the hard drive... so open a new compilation and on the first tab(I think) is the "refresh" radio button, turn off auto refreshing and then just try to open a compilation and it should have listed all of your files, just marekd with a red X meaning that it can't be found...

oh and not-really-related my favorite interpreting language is Scheme a variation of LISP - functional programing is weird but fun

[BillW]

Re: Oh, this bugs me no end!

Well all, after 5 trys, I finally got the official word from Nero. In their eyes, there is no problem with the software. To quote them, "This unfortunately is the way it is and not an error in the software."

Further, I had asked if they have a utility program to fix the NRA file, and their reply was, "we do not have such tools since the files do not need repair."

Finally, I asked if they could provide any info on the NRA file structure (yes, this was a long shot), and they said they would not.

So, until Nero recognizes that there IS a problem with their software, I guess we're SOL using Nero if you want to move your files to a different location. What a pain!

Anyone have any suggestions on alternatives?

Thanks!

[neilthecellist]

Re: Oh, this bugs me no end!

Ha, you should show them this thread, maybe their eyes will open a LITTLE bigger.

[ChristinaS]

Re: Oh, this bugs me no end!

OK, it seems that Nero can use an m3u playlist to create a new audio cd compilation.

So before making any Nero compilation, start by making an m3u playlist (with full paths) and then use that to create the compilation. If you name the m3u teh same way as the nra file then there's a chance you'll find them all again.

Of course nothing can be done for all the nra's produced before without an accompanying m3u.

At least even if you move your audio files, the m3u will contain the original names and paths and you'd know what you had and where it had been.

Nothing can be done about effects though that would be defined in the compilation I suppose. I sometimes use one to widen the stereo effect for instance.