Bug prevents loading on some OS X systems: expects case-insensitive file system

While trying to load Alice on my PowerBook, the title billboard will show, but Alice will not proceed any further. The Console app shows an IOException:

2/1/2009 12:19:10p [0x0-0xc10c1].edu.cmu.cs.stage3[75840] edu.cmu.cs.stage3.alice.core.ExceptionWrapper: IOException attempting to load jython-2.1/lib/alice/__init__.py

There is no 'lib' at that path, but a 'Lib' directory does exist:

[Vertigo:Contents/Required/jython-2.1] dobbs% dir
total 1432
drwxrwxrwx   4 dobbs  admin     272 May  3  2006 .
drwxrwxrwx  18 dobbs  admin     952 May  3  2006 ..
drwxrwxrwx   6 dobbs  admin    4488 May  3  2006 Lib
drwxrwxrwx   3 dobbs  admin     102 May 12  2005 cachedir
-rwxrwxrwx   1 dobbs  admin  719950 Mar 24  2003 jython.jar
-rwxrwxrwx   1 dobbs  admin    1700 Feb  5  2003 jythonLicense.txt
-rwxrwxrwx   1 dobbs  admin      34 Feb 18  2002 registry
[Vertigo:Contents/Required/jython-2.1] dobbs%

Normally, this isn't an issue on Macs as the default installation settings produce a case-insensitive file system, but some people do install that option. This affects the 2.0 release as well as the 2.2 beta.

My quick fix was to add a symbolic link to Lib named 'lib' in the jython-2.1 directory:

[Vertigo:Contents/Required/jython-2.1] dobbs% dir lib
lrwxr-xr-x  1 dobbs  admin  4 Feb  1 11:13 lib -> Lib/
[Vertigo:Contents/Required/jython-2.1] dobbs%

I don't know how comprehensive this fix is, but the editor now loads.

This also exists in the 2.0 release, and the above fix works equally well there.

I'm glad I helped someone out there.

It worries me slightly that I haven't received a response from a developer. Seems like an easy fix, but maybe it's not a high priority.

Here, I'll look into where the file is referenced:

[Vertigo:/Applications/Development/Alice 2.2.app] dobbs% grep -ri 'jython-2.1/lib/alice/__init__.py' .
Binary file ./Contents/Required/lib/alice.jar matches
[Vertigo:/Applications/Development/Alice 2.2.app] dobbs%

Well ok, I'll just unzip that JAR and take a closer look:

[Vertigo:/Applications/Development/Alice 2.2.app] dobbs% cd Contents/Required/lib/
[Vertigo:Contents/Required/lib] dobbs% unzip alice.jar 
Archive:  alice.jar
   creating: META-INF/
 extracting: META-INF/MANIFEST.MF    
 extracting: .classpath              
 extracting: .project                
   creating: .settings/
 extracting: .settings/org.eclipse.jdt.core.prefs  
 extracting: .settings/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.prefs  
   creating: edu/
   creating: edu/cmu/
   creating: edu/cmu/cs/
   creating: edu/cmu/cs/stage3/
   creating: edu/cmu/cs/stage3/alice/
--snip--
[Vertigo:Contents/Required/lib] dobbs% grep -ri 'jython-2.1/lib/alice/__init__.py' edu/
Binary file edu/cmu/cs/stage3/alice/scripting/jython/ScriptingFactory.class matches
[Vertigo:Contents/Required/lib] dobbs%

So there you have it. The ScriptingFactory classfile is the only reference my simplistic search method found. I'm actually surprised I found one in a compressed archive...

Any change you guys can post step by step instructions for a complete noob.

I'm taking a course at a local college and a few of us are having the same problem.

From reading the posts it looks like a reoccurring problem.

Hold on a tick, are you sure you're on a case-sensitive filesystem? I'm going to assume you are using OSX here. Get Info on the drive on which you placed the Alice app. Look at the "Format:" field under the General section. If it doesn't say case-sensitive, then this isn't the problem.

If you want more help, let me know what operation system and what version of Alice you're using. I can't promise anything, though.