🚀 go-pugleaf

Jeffrey J. Kosowsky wrote:
 > Kevin Rodgers <ihs_4664@yahoo.com> writes:
 >>It might be that VM is using the file name that was cached in the MIME
 >>layout, instead of the quoted file name.  What does this return on your
 >>platform:
 >>
 >>	(shell-quote-argument
 >>	 "c:/DOCUME~1/myname/LOCALS~1/Temp/FP&A 2004-2005 Capabilities.ppt")
 >
 > Returns:
 >         "c:/DOCUME~1/myname/LOCALS~1/Temp/FP&A 2004-2005 Capabilities.ppt"
 >
 >>Also, what happens if you leave off the %f spec so that
 >>vm-mime-display-external-generic adds the quoted name itself:
 >>
 >>	("application" "cmd /c")
 >>	("audio" "cmd /c")
 >>	("image" "cmd /c")
 >>	("video" "cmd /c")
 >
 > No change...
 >
 > However, I have identified the *source* of the problem.
 > According the the help message generated by "help cmd" in an XP shell,
 > special characters like '&' need to be *directly* quoted. Specifically,
 >         The special characters that require quotes are:
 >              <space>
 >              &()[]{}^=;!'+,`~
 >
 > In other words quoting the *entire* file name fails as follows:
 >         cmd "FP&A 2004-2005 Capabilities.ppt"
 > gives:
 >         'FP' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
 >         operable program or batch file.
 >         'A.doc' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
 >         operable program or batch file.
 >
 > Instead, you need to quote the *special* character itself as follows:
 >         cmd FP"&"A 2004-2005 Capabilities.ppt
 > which correctly opens the file.

Don't each of the spaces need to be quoted as well?  That would yield

	cmd FP"&"A" "2004-2005" "Capabilities.ppt

 > So, to make this work, you need to quote directly all the special
 > characters in the string represented by %f.
 >
 > Not sure how to do this best in elisp though... (Perl on the other
 > hand would be very easy).
 >
 > At least, this seems to explain the problem!

Indeed.  What is system-type on your platform?  lisp/subr.el defines
shell-quote-argument, and its result depends on that variable.  But
none of the alternatives use the quoting convention you describe.

If cmd is the shell you use for M-! and M-|, you can probably just redefine
it:

(defun cmd-quote-argument (argument)
   "Quote ARGUMENT for a `cmd` command."
   (let ((result "")
	(start 0)
	end)
     (while (string-match "[][ &(){}^=;!'+,`~]" argument start)
       (setq end (match-beginning 0)
	    result (concat result
			   (substring argument start end)
			   "\"" (substring argument end (1+ end)) "\"")
	    start (1+ end)))
     (concat result (substring argument start))))

(defalias 'shell-quote-argument 'cmd-quote-argument)

-- 
Kevin Rodgers