[Solved] Remind user once the bound file in the descript.ion disappears but the comment still exist

[tuska]

2Usher
Thank you for your information.
I will deal with this topic again in a few days.

[tuska]

2Usher
I have now tried to familiarize myself with the topic and made many tests with different settings.

Finally, I followed your advice and used the settings you recommended:

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CmtOemFont=0
CommentPreferredFormat=1

(Only if you open "old" descript.ion files with an editor, the umlauts are not displayed correctly.
Notepad++ v7.6.1 does not display the special characters of old or new descript.ion files as they should be -
Notepad2 v. 4.2.25 and EmEditor Pro v. 18.4.0 can automatically display special characters/symbols correctly)

Coding - Conversion:
By now I even know how to convert several files at once in EmEditor,
but a conversion from "Western European (Windows)" to "UTF-16LE with signature" and other encodings did not have the desired effect,
i.e. umlauts in the file "descript.ion" were also incorrect with the changed/new encoding...
- in Quick View (Ctrl+Q) and
- in the Lister (F3).
But all tooltips were ok!
For this reason I will refrain from conversions.

descript.ion (Queries done directly in "Everything"):

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c: exact:descript.ion	- entries:  13 ) 897 TC file comments
d: exact:descript.ion	- entries: 884 ) ====================
i: exact:descript.ion	- entries: 884 .. (backup of d:)
j: exact:descript.ion	- entries: 884 .. (backup of d:)

Thank you again that you have so persistently represented your conviction

[Usher]

but a conversion from "Western European (Windows)" to "UTF-16LE with signature" and other encodings did not have the desired effect,

It's expected result as you have used DOS/OEM codepage before. DOS, not Windows! I don't think that any newest software still supports DOS codepages, that's why I suggested to dig in archives for proper DOS-to-Windows umlaut converter.

[tuska]

but a conversion from "Western European (Windows)" to "UTF-16LE with signature" and other encodings did not have the desired effect,

It's expected result as you have used DOS/OEM codepage before. DOS, not Windows!

I'm sorry, I don't get it.

I am a TC user since 2003 (PC: formerly Windows XP).
What should I have set in TC to use DOS/OEM codepage?
How can I see what is currently set?

I have the following settings:
"File comments" - Preferred type: Unicode UTF16 - DOS charset - ☐ Copy comments with files - Read from both

[Usher]

Standard for descript.ion comes from the old DOS stone age, so umlauts in your old files are for sure encoded in CP850 (DOS Latin-1) codepage (my ogonki ąćęłńóśźż are in CP852 a.k.a. DOS Latin-2), and you have still this option (DOS charset) turned on.
You can just view a newly created file and some old one in Lister and check what options are set in Lister when the file is properly seen (press A for ANSI/Windows view, S for OEM/DOS view, 6 for UTF-16 etc.).
You can set different fonts for ANSI and OEM to see the difference at first sight, use menu "Encoding" to select other predefined (mainly Windows) charsets/codepages and add even more charsets (f.e. ISO-8859-x) on your own. It will work OK if you install support for those charsets in Windows.

[tuska]

2Usher
Thank you very much for your explanations and your efforts to bring the subject closer to me.
Thanks also for the tip with the Lister options, etc. ...

Since the topic "Representation of 'German umlauts' when I open a descript.ion file with an editor" is not a problem for me,
I consider this issue as done.

PS:
Currently I need DOS charset for compatibility reasons, i.e. to see the tooltips and colors for certain files with TC file comments.

[Usher]

It's your choice, of course. I can only add that fully automatic codepage/charset conversion is impossible without semantic analysis of the text. So always remember to do backup, otherwise you will fight with letter mishmash some day („groch z kapustą” is better wording in Polish).

[tuska]

… I can only add that fully automatic codepage/charset conversion is impossible without semantic analysis of the text.
So always remember to do backup, otherwise you will fight with letter mishmash some day („groch z kapustą” is better wording in Polish).

That is now another reason why I will do nothing more in this regard (… open a hidden descript.ion file with an editor | german umlauts …).
Thank you for this additional hint!

Regards
Karl

[tuska]

To come back to the actual topic:

The cleanup of the 159 inconsistent descript.ion files listed in the MissingFiles.txt file by the above AHK script is now done.
This was a time consuming affair, not only because of descript.ion files with up to 234 lines(!)

The following activities were carried out:
1. Button in TC with command: cm_SwitchHidSys --> show hidden files in TC --> file: descript.ion
2. Open the folder in which the file descript.ion is located in TC using MissingFiles.txt
3. Check whether the files/folders specified in the MissingFiles.txt file exist (e.g. in a different location)
4. Delete descript.ion files or
5. Open descript.ion files in an Editor and correct file comments (delete single entries) of deleted files/folders,
    if there are further comments in the descript.ion file
6. Open descript.ion files in an Editor and copy file comments to the clipboard.
    Create new file comments for moved and/or renamed files.
7. In very rare cases, delete file comments and create them again (if not immediately apparent,
    why this entry exists in MissingFiles.txt, it is sometimes easier to recreate the file comment)
8. Button in TC with command: cm_SwitchHidSys --> hide descript.ion files in TC again
9. My wife was also unwittingly involved in the creation of inconsistent descript.ion files.
    She received a special training from me.
    The resulting states of mind of both of us were as follows:
    I: ...........
    She:
10. The idea of making a series of appointments in Outlook to ensure the proper application of the logic to file comments
    with a script, I never would have thought of that before.

Comments:
1. MissingFiles.txt: If this file does NOT appear [anymore] in the previously defined path of the script "StartDir =",
    then there are no inconsistencies, i.e. all file comments have been correctly assigned[/cleared].
2. Special character "§" paragraph:
    In the file MissingFiles.txt only the file "§_Sonderzeichen.txt" with file comment "§_Sonderzeichen.txt" has been added
    in this form: "⌡_Sonderzeichen.txt" although the file comment has been correctly noted.
    But this was already the only "problem", otherwise in my opinion everything was displayed correctly.

Therefore I can recommend every user of TC file comments, to run the Autohotkey script from Hacker
from time to time, to determine whether file comments need to be adapted.

And finally, some good news:
In the current PCWorld 2/2019 (german edition of PC-WELT) concerning "Top 100 Software for 2019"
the Total Commander 9.21a takes 2nd place!