Released "ePubChecker", my first REAL Studio app.

As a full-blown app, ePubChecker makes a nice demonstration of REAL Studio 2010, with Window menu, About box, etc.

Validates any EPUB book file against the "epubcheck" Java library from Google/Adobe. This validation is handy for any such author, and is required by Apple for iBook submissions.

Unfortunately, I was only able to release on Mac OS X. I'm having technical difficulties with both the Windows and Linux versions. In Windows I appear to have a problem with pathnames in the file system; I should be able to resolve that easily. In Linux, the app immediately quits before any gui appears; not sure what I'm doing wrong there, and debugging has proven futile.

Update: The problem with my Windows edition was neither REALbasic nor my code. The problem was not even with Java which I call to run the "epubcheck" library from Google/Adobe. It turns out that the library itself does not like 8.3 short name paths, à la DOS.

C:\Users\ADMINI~1\Desktop\HOUNDS~1.EPU

C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\hounds.epub


Short name paths are what we get when calling "ShellPath" on a FolderItem in REALbasic in Windows OS. But when I fed that short name to the epubcheck library, the library reported no such file found. Switching to "AbsolutePath" in REALbasic made epubcheck happy. I suspect the I/O calls the Google/Adobe make are not 8.3 savvy. So for Mac OS X &Linux I call "ShellPath", but for Windows I call "AbsolutePath". Problem solved.


Lesson learned:

Test on all 4* platforms as I develop, rather than waiting to the end.

*REAL Studio 2010 Release 3 now deploys to four platforms: Mac OS X Carbon, Mac OS X Cocoa (still in beta), Windows, and Linux.