variable in lisp keeps reading/ putting ou the value as being "ÿþa"??

[The_Caddie]

dose anybody know why my variable keeps on putting out the symbols "ÿþa" instead of the select ctb.

heres my code:

(setq f (open "C:\\ICT\\AutoCAD_Architecture_Suite_2012\\CUSTOM\\TREADSTONE\\PEN\\MYPLOTSTYLE.PEN" "r"))
(setq MYPLOTSTYLE (read-line f))
(close f)

(Command "-Plot" "Y" MYLAYOUT MYOUTPUTDEVICE MYPAPERSIZE "Millimeters" MYPAPERORIENTATION "No" "layout" "Fit" "0.00,0.00" "YES" MYPLOTSTYLE "No" "No" "Yes" "No" "No" "No" "yes")

[Kent1Cooper]

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@The_Caddie wrote:

dose anybody know why my variable keeps on putting out the symbols "ÿþa" instead of the select ctb.

heres my code:

(setq f (open "C:\\....\\MYPLOTSTYLE.PEN" "r"))
(setq MYPLOTSTYLE (read-line f))
(close f)

(Command "-Plot" ... "YES" MYPLOTSTYLE ...)

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Maybe this is too obvious a question, but I guess I have to ask:  Is the MYPLOTSTYLE.PEN file a plain text file, and is the .ctb file name the first line in it?

[The_Caddie]

yes the infamous pen file your quite right Kent though I'll add the ctb file name is the only thing in the pen/ text file...

Im also thinking its the fact i have a period in my file name which is giving the variable a headache?

[Kent1Cooper]

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@The_Caddie wrote:

yes the infamous pen file your quite right Kent though I'll add the ctb file name is the only thing in the pen/ text file...

Im also thinking its the fact i have a period in my file name which is giving the variable a headache?

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It may be the only thing there, but if the file is something like a word processor document file, or a spreadsheet, or who knows what else, rather than a plain text file, there could easily be other coding elements in the file [font and size designators, etc.], preceding the content you actually see when you open the file.

If it does come from some other kind of program, you could try opening it in a plain-text editor like Notepad if you can, and saving it there, to eliminate any such elements -- it will probably warn you about losing encoding.  But that assumes you don't also need the file in whatever its original form is, for some other purpose.

Or you could try a (while) loop, repeating (read-line) until what it returns is just a text string ending in ".ctb", assuming that it will do that eventually [it might not, depending on how lines in the file are broken down].

I doubt the period is the problem, if it's just the separator between the file name and the file type -- the (open) function deals with those all the time.

[The_Caddie · Accepted solution]

nope its just a text file with just an extention type change i made up the text inside is compiled by a vb.net program though as you can see the other variables are working okay and they use the exact same method i have hoever taken the time to delete the file and re-make the whole thing by hand ussing plain old notepad howver the resulat remained the same?