Basic question that is beyond me...

Please forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere...

Normally when I work on my programming projects I simply duplicate the file or folder to backup what I'm satisfied with till that point. When I do Arduino files and duplicate them...and try to reopen them they are blank. I have no idea what is happening.

Another concern is when I open a file a blank arduino always opens directly above the correct window containing my program....???

Thank you in advance!

You haven't described clearly how you are duplicating the Arduino code files. INO files must be in a directory of the same name. For example myTest.ino is in a directory called myTest

What I usually do is make a copy of the directory (which includes the files within it) and name the copy something like myTestBK1 for backup #1. The file within that directory will still be called myTest.ino so it won't load into the IDE unless I rename it to myTestBK1.ino.

Does this help?

...R

Thank you. It does help. But it just helps to prove that there is absolutely no reason why the .ino files cannot just open on their own no matter where they are on the hard drive. If there are associated files missing etc the program should just open a window to ask you to locate them. I've been a programmer for decades and never had this type of restriction with insisting on the directory's name being correct etc....even back in my mainframe years there wasn't this type of restriction.

Thank you for your help!

Yes this "feature" is very annoying, especially if you just want to check if some code from the forum compiles.


Rob