Bug? If Manifest is marked read-only, results in weird bugs

Windows sometimes marks files read only, in spite of the users wishes.
If marked read only, can't debug from the IDE. This is not a B4A bug per se. But B4A does not warn that it can't write the new manifest file.

B4A does warn you that the Manifest is read-only and creates a temporary one, you can see the message when compiling.

To avoid Windows marking files as read only, do not install the files on protected directories such as Program Files, etc.

NJDude said:

B4A does warn you that the Manifest is read-only and creates a temporary one, you can see the message when compiling.

To avoid Windows marking files as read only, do not install the files on protected directories such as Program Files, etc.

Click to expand...

The warning in the compile window is there as you mention, but useless as it is near the top of the window and has to be scrolled back in order to be visible.
As for the Protected directories: windows has documented bugs that result in files being made read-only, almost, but not quite at random. Also documented is the lack of a clear cut fix.

...The warning in the compile window is there as you mention, but useless as it is near the top of the window and has to be scrolled back in order to be visible.

Click to expand...

Useless? I mean the message is there, if "scrolling" is a problem for you, well, I have nothing to say about that.

Regarding the almost-random read-only settings, I haven't encountered that issue myself, like I mentioned on my previous post, installing B4A and other files on non-protected directories should be enough.

It also displays an error when .bal files are read-only. Many source control systems like to have the files set to read only and then when a check-out is done, the source control system will remove the read-only flag. Then when you do a check-in, the read-only flag is turned back on. This is helpful if you forget to do a check-out, the IDE should let you know the file is read-only. This is especially true when the IDE does not integrate with source control.
I have posted this as a bug twice with no response.

You need to allow B4A to write to the manifest file. If there are items in the manifest that you want to retain or customise you need to set them in the manifest editor in the toolset, that's what it's there for.

The compile process opens the .bal file in write mode despite the fact it doesn't make any changes to it. This causes an error when read-only. This should be changed to open the file in read mode. If files that it legitimately needs to update are read only, it should give a nice message and stop.