Most appropriate sub-area of Processing 4?

PDE

Processing version

Processing 4.5.2 portable version (processing-4.5.2-windows-x64-portable.zip)

Operating system

Windows 10

Bug description

When a custom location for preferences.txt is defined in settings.txt:

1. Processing creates a preferences.txt in that directory but does not write to (update) that file.
2. Preference changes are written to the default preferences directory instead and are not used.
3. Processing will use the custom preferences.txt if it is manually edited.

Processing should write to (update) the configured custom preferences.txt location.

This works as expected in Processing 4.4.x

Steps to reproduce this

This is a custom environment on my system.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Unzip processing-4.5.2-windows-x64-portable.zip into:
   D:\Program_Portable\
   This creates: D:\Program_Portable\Processing\
2. Create this folder (must be created manually):
   D:\Program_Portable\Processing\mypreferences\
3. Create this file:
   D:\Program_Portable\Processing\app\resources\lib\settings.txt
4. Put this single line into settings.txt:
   settings.path=D:\Program_Portable\Processing\mypreferences
5. Launch Processing.
6. Confirm it creates:
   D:\Program_Portable\Processing\mypreferences\preferences.txt
7. Change any preference in the UI (example: Editor font size and Console font size).
8. Close Processing.
9. Check which file actually changed:
   • D:\Program_Portable\Processing\mypreferences\preferences.txt
   • %APPDATA%\Processing\preferences.txt

Actual result:

• Processing creates D:\Program_Portable\Processing\mypreferences\preferences.txt
• Processing does not write preference changes to it.
• Preference changes are written to %APPDATA%\Processing\preferences.txt instead.

Expected result:

• Processing should read/write preferences using the folder specified by settings.path.
• You should see the Editor font size change in real time when modifying it with the scrollbar

Reference:

1. https://discourse.processing.org/t/custom-location-for-preferences-txt-not-working-with-processing-4-5-2/47872
2. https://github.com/processing/processing4/wiki/Preferences#sketchbook-and-settings-location
3. https://github.com/processing/processing4/releases

Additional context

See Processing Discourse for additional context:

https://discourse.processing.org/t/custom-location-for-preferences-txt-not-working-with-processing-4-5-2/47872

Would you like to work on the issue?

No, I’m just reporting the issue