Skip to content

Make Preferences standalone in app:utils #1563

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Open
diyaayay wants to merge 8 commits into
base: main
Choose a base branch
from
Open

Make Preferences standalone in app:utils #1563

Show file tree
Hide file tree
Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
8 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
03672fc
feat(utils): add Platform.getName() for platform-specific pref keys
diyaayay Jun 29, 2026
ec66dcd
refactor(utils): move defaults.txt into app:utils resources
diyaayay Aug 1, 2026
e924d99
add standalone Preferences to app:utils
diyaayay Aug 2, 2026
a8d342a
delegate app.Preferences storage to utils.Preferences
diyaayay Aug 2, 2026
cedd0dc
back the preprocessor Preferences shim with utils.Preferences
diyaayay Aug 3, 2026
803d647
add change listeners to utils.Preferences
diyaayay Aug 3, 2026
c6913d2
add tests for utils.Preferences
diyaayay Aug 4, 2026
d041db5
create the settings folder on save when missing
diyaayay Aug 6, 2026
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
246 changes: 36 additions & 210 deletions app/src/processing/app/Preferences.java
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -23,62 +23,34 @@

import processing.app.ui.Toolkit;
import processing.core.PApplet;
import processing.core.PConstants;

import java.awt.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.SystemColor;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;


/**
* Storage class for user preferences and environment settings.
* <P>
* This class does not use the Properties class because .properties files use
* ISO 8859-1 encoding, which is highly likely to be a problem when trying to
* save sketch folders and locations. Like the rest of Processing, we use UTF8.
* <p>
* We don't use the Java Preferences API because it would entail writing to
* the registry (on Windows), or an obscure file location (on Mac OS X) and
* make it far more difficult (impossible) to remove the preferences.txt to
* reset them (when they become corrupt), or to find the the file to make
* edits for numerous obscure preferences that are not part of the preferences
* window. If we added a generic editor (e.g. about:config in Mozilla) for
* such things, we could start using the Java Preferences API. But wow, that
* sounds like a lot of work. Not unlike writing this paragraph.
* The app-facing side of the preferences. The actual storage (loading and
* saving preferences.txt, the bundled defaults, platform-specific keys)
* lives in the standalone {@link processing.utils.Preferences}; this class
* delegates to it and keeps the pieces that only make sense inside the
* full application: fonts and colors, error dialogs, and environment
* side effects like proxies and the native file chooser.
*/
public class Preferences {
// had to rename the defaults file because people were editing it
static final String DEFAULTS_FILE = "defaults.txt"; //$NON-NLS-1$
static final String PREFS_FILE = "preferences.txt"; //$NON-NLS-1$

static Map<String, String> defaults;
static Map<String, String> table = new HashMap<>();
static File preferencesFile;
private static boolean initialized = false;


// /** @return true if the sketchbook file did not exist */
// static public boolean init() {
static public void init() {
initialized = true;
// start by loading the defaults, in case something
// important was deleted from the user prefs
try {
var defaultsStream = Preferences
.class
.getClassLoader()
.getResourceAsStream(DEFAULTS_FILE);
load(defaultsStream);
} catch (Exception e) {
processing.utils.Preferences.loadDefaults();
} catch (IOException e) {
Messages.showError(null, "Could not read default settings.\n" +
"You'll need to reinstall Processing.", e);
}

// Clone the defaults, then override any them with the user's preferences.
// This ensures that any new/added preference will be present.
defaults = new HashMap<>(table);

// other things that have to be set explicitly for the defaults
setColor("run.window.bgcolor", SystemColor.control); //$NON-NLS-1$

Expand All @@ -87,32 +59,15 @@ static public void init() {
setBoolean("editor.input_method_support", true);
}


// next load user preferences file
preferencesFile = Base.getSettingsFile(PREFS_FILE);
var preferencesFileOverride = System.getProperty("processing.app.preferences.file");
if (preferencesFileOverride != null && !preferencesFileOverride.isEmpty()) {
preferencesFile = new File(preferencesFileOverride);
}
boolean firstRun = !preferencesFile.exists();
if (!firstRun) {
try {
load(new FileInputStream(preferencesFile));

} catch (Exception ex) {
Messages.showError("Error reading preferences",
"Error reading the preferences file. " +
"Please delete (or move)\n" +
preferencesFile.getAbsolutePath() +
" and restart Processing.", ex);
}
}

if (checkSketchbookPref() || firstRun) {
// if (firstRun) {
// create a new preferences file if none exists
// saves the defaults out to the file
save();
// next load user preferences file over the defaults
try {
processing.utils.Preferences.loadUserPrefs(Base.getSettingsFolder());
} catch (IOException ex) {
Messages.showError("Error reading preferences",
"Error reading the preferences file. " +
"Please delete (or move)\n" +
processing.utils.Preferences.getPreferencesPath() +
" and restart Processing.", ex);
}

PApplet.useNativeSelect =
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -140,15 +95,15 @@ static public void init() {
* For testing, pretend to load preferences without a real file.
*/
static public void skipInit() {
initialized = true;
processing.utils.Preferences.skipInit();
}

/**
* Check whether Preferences.init() has been called. If not, we are probably not running the full application.
* @return true if Preferences has been initialized
*/
static public boolean isInitialized() {
return initialized;
return processing.utils.Preferences.isInitialized();
}


Expand All @@ -165,120 +120,24 @@ static void handleProxy(String protocol, String hostProp, String portProp) {


static public String getPreferencesPath() {
return preferencesFile.getAbsolutePath();
return processing.utils.Preferences.getPreferencesPath();
}


// . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


/**
* Load a set of key/value pairs from a UTF-8 encoded file into 'table'.
* For 3.0a6, this removes any platform-specific extensions from keys, so
* that we don't have platform-specific entries in a user's preferences.txt
* file, which would require all prefs to be changed twice, or risk being
* overwritten by the unchanged platform-specific version on reload.
*/
static public void load(InputStream input) throws IOException {
HashMap<String, String> platformSpecific = new HashMap<>();

String[] lines = PApplet.loadStrings(input); // Reads as UTF-8
for (String line : lines) {
if ((line.isEmpty()) ||
(line.charAt(0) == '#')) continue;

line = line.replace("\\", "/"); // normalize slashes in paths

// this won't properly handle = signs being in the text
int equals = line.indexOf('=');
if (equals != -1) {
String key = line.substring(0, equals).trim();
String value = line.substring(equals + 1).trim();
if (!isPlatformSpecific(key, value, platformSpecific)) {
table.put(key, value);
}
}
}
// Now override the keys with any platform-specific defaults we've found.
for (String key : platformSpecific.keySet()) {
table.put(key, platformSpecific.get(key));
}

@catilac catilac Sep 17, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Collaborator

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

was this moved somewhere? or just deleted?

processing.utils.Preferences.load(input);
}


/**
* @param key original key (may include platform extension)
* @param value the value that goes with the key
* @param specific where to put the key/value pairs for *this* platform
* @return true if a platform-specific key
*/
static protected boolean isPlatformSpecific(String key, String value,
Map<String, String> specific) {
for (String platform : PConstants.platformNames) {
String ext = "." + platform;
if (key.endsWith(ext)) {
String thisPlatform = PConstants.platformNames[PApplet.platform];
if (platform.equals(thisPlatform)) {
key = key.substring(0, key.lastIndexOf(ext));
// store this for later overrides
specific.put(key, value);
//} else {
// ignore platform-specific defaults for other platforms,
// but return 'true' because it needn't be added to the big list
}
return true;
}
}
return false;
}


// . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


static public void save() {
// On startup, this is null, but ignore it. It's trying to update the
// prefs for the open sketch before Preferences.init() has been called.
if (preferencesFile != null) {
try {
File dir = preferencesFile.getParentFile();
File preferencesTemp = File.createTempFile("preferences", ".txt", dir);
if (!preferencesTemp.setWritable(true, false)) {
throw new IOException("Could not set " + preferencesTemp + " writable");
}

// Fix for 0163 to properly use Unicode when writing preferences.txt
PrintWriter writer = PApplet.createWriter(preferencesTemp);

String[] keyList = table.keySet().toArray(new String[0]);
// Sorting is really helpful for debugging, diffing, and finding keys
keyList = PApplet.sort(keyList);
for (String key : keyList) {
writer.println(key + "=" + table.get(key)); //$NON-NLS-1$
}
writer.flush();
writer.close();

// Rename preferences.txt to preferences.old
File oldPreferences = new File(dir, "preferences.old");
if (oldPreferences.exists()) {
if (!oldPreferences.delete()) {
throw new IOException("Could not delete preferences.old");
}
}
if (preferencesFile.exists() &&
!preferencesFile.renameTo(oldPreferences)) {
throw new IOException("Could not replace preferences.old");
}
// Make the temporary file into the real preferences
if (!preferencesTemp.renameTo(preferencesFile)) {
throw new IOException("Could not move preferences file into place");
}

} catch (IOException e) {
Messages.showWarning("Preferences",
"Could not save the Preferences file.", e);
}
try {
processing.utils.Preferences.save();
} catch (IOException e) {
Messages.showWarning("Preferences",
"Could not save the Preferences file.", e);
}
}

Expand All @@ -289,44 +148,31 @@ static public void save() {
// all the information from preferences.txt

static public String get(String attribute /*, String defaultValue */) {
if (!initialized) {
if (!isInitialized()) {
init();
}
return table.get(attribute);
return processing.utils.Preferences.get(attribute);
}


static public String getDefault(String attribute) {
return defaults.get(attribute);
return processing.utils.Preferences.getDefault(attribute);
}


static public void set(String attribute, String value) {
table.put(attribute, value);
processing.utils.Preferences.set(attribute, value);
}


static public void unset(String attribute) {
table.remove(attribute);
processing.utils.Preferences.unset(attribute);
}


static public boolean getBoolean(String attribute) {
String value = get(attribute); //, null);
return Boolean.parseBoolean(value);

/*
supposedly not needed, because anything besides 'true'
(ignoring case) will just be false.. so if malformed -> false
if (value == null) return defaultValue;

try {
return (new Boolean(value)).booleanValue();
} catch (NumberFormatException e) {
System.err.println("expecting an integer: " + attribute + " = " + value);
}
return defaultValue;
*/
Comment on lines -317 to -329

@catilac catilac Sep 17, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Collaborator

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I need help understanding why this was removed

}


Expand Down Expand Up @@ -385,26 +231,6 @@ static public Font getFont(String familyAttr, String sizeAttr, int style) {
// . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


/**
* Check for a 4.0 sketchbook location, and if none exists,
* try to grab it from the 3.0 sketchbook location.
* @return true if a location was found and the pref didn't exist
*/
static protected boolean checkSketchbookPref() {
// If a 4.0 sketchbook location has never been inited
if (getSketchbookPath() == null) {
String threePath = get("sketchbook.path.three"); //$NON-NLS-1$
// If they've run the 3.0 version, start with that location
if (threePath != null) {
setSketchbookPath(threePath);
return true; // save the sketchbook right away
}
// Otherwise it'll be null, and reset properly by Base
}
return false;
}


static public String getOldSketchbookPath() {
return get("sketchbook.path.three"); //$NON-NLS-1$
}
Expand Down
12 changes: 12 additions & 0 deletions app/utils/src/main/java/processing/utils/Platform.java
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -23,4 +23,16 @@ static public boolean isWindows() {
static public boolean isLinux() {
return System.getProperty("os.name").contains("Linux"); //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$
}


/**
* Platform name for the current OS, mirroring core's
* PConstants.platformNames: "windows", "macos", "linux", or "other".
*/
static public String getName() {
if (isWindows()) return "windows"; //$NON-NLS-1$
if (isMacOS()) return "macos"; //$NON-NLS-1$
if (isLinux()) return "linux"; //$NON-NLS-1$
return "other"; //$NON-NLS-1$
}
}
Loading
Loading