Problem with Ruby Console+ (and some others)

Technical Problems
1

I use SU 2018 Pro version.
I installed this SU on two different computers.
I found Ruby Console+ very helpful for my work.
However Ruby Console+ (and some other plugins) works on one computer but not on the other.
Installation reports “succesful installation”, but plugin does not show up in plugin manager
and SU.
Restarting SU (or computer) does not help.
Error messages enclosed at the end of this writing.

I suspect that it is something to do with my Windows (10 64bit) user name.
Due to some past Windows problem I created a user with full name:

Gábor János

This name (unfortunately) includes space and accented characters.

Somehow all SU path includes this name (of course).
I have checked manually that those files are at the right place.
Still, SU plugins can not reach them.
Since exactly same configuration work on othe computers (with standard user names),
I suspect that the problem is related to this user name.
Since I use this user name for year it would be difficult to create another user just
to be able use SU:

Is there any solution for this problem (except creating other user account without space and/or
accented character)?

Error Loading File C:/Users/Gábor János/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2018/SketchUp/Plugins/ae_console/core.rb
Error: #<NameError: uninitialized constant Class::DIR>
C:/Users/Gábor János/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2018/SketchUp/Plugins/ae_console/features/historyprovider.rb:27:in get_data_dir' C:/Users/Gábor János/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2018/SketchUp/Plugins/ae_console/features/historyprovider.rb:38:in class:HistoryProvider’

2

It is almost certainly the accented characters causing the error.
Older versions of Ruby were infamous for their inability to succeed with accented characters.
Spaces are usually not a problem.
The newer Ruby versions are much better.
However, it is usual for scripts to force string encoding to UTF-8 which should ensure a compatible string is then available.
Otherwise Ruby can fail to find/load a file which exists, simply because the string specifying it does not match exactly!
Perhaps the author of this tool has missed out a forced encoding at some point ?
What not PM the author and point out the issue directly.

My experience with accented characters has been relatively good with newer Ruby versions, however, trying to get success with Cyrillic, Greek and Asian character sets is more difficult.

Meanwhile your only workaround is to use a user account named “GaborJanos” - with or without a space…

1 Like
3

@GregIII that would be @Aerilius , by clicking on his name, a pop-up with a blue message-button appears.

4

Thanks a lot for your replay and help!
In fact we used this name, because we used up all meaningful
“normal” version.
But Windows had some serious problems and made those user profiles invalid.
So finaly we ended up with this problematic name.
Windows can handle it, but some extensions have difficulties.
I knew this is coming, but did not expect that it will happen with the most important program
we use. SU.

Anyway, thanks for your help!

5

Thanks you for the direct link and helpful comment!
It saved me some time!

Best regards

1 Like