no bug View menu items disabled unless a file is open

[jhmpub]

View menu items like "Next File in Directory", "Random File in Directory", etc. are disabled unless a file is loaded. I often run IrfanView from the command line and expect those menu items to work without loading a file. I noticed this behavior change when I upgraded from 32 bit v4.25 to to 64 bit v4.44.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I just installed IrfanView 4.25 to check. The View menu items are also greyed out as expected.

What command-line options are you using to launch IrfanView?

I see this option in i_options.txt

Example for /filepattern:
i_view32.exe c:\images\ /filepattern="*.jpg"
=> Go to folder "c:\images" and load JPGs only in the browse/file list

[jhmpub]

I am launching from a command line alias. If your shell does not support aliases you would have to enter i_view64.exe or I_view32.exe. When I run v4.25 I_view32.exe from the command line I see the View menu items enabled. please see screen captures:

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Please forward a report to Irfan Skiljan (Help, About IrfanView) since I am unable to reproduce this issue, i.e. the menu items are greyed out in both versions.

Let us know what he says.

[jhmpub]

Please forward a report to Irfan Skiljan (Help, About IrfanView) since I am unable to reproduce this issue, i.e. the menu items are greyed out in both versions.

Let us know what he says.

I am contacting Irfan Skiljan and will report what he says.

I appreciate the behavior may not be considered a bug but there has been a change of behavior that discourages me from upgrading v4.25 to v4.44.

Please try the following commands from a cmd.exe shell where the current working directory contains one or more image files and the understanding your directory names will differ:

i:\home\jhm\arc\images\2017\sts\jan>e:\pkg\win32\i view\i_view32.exe

i:\home\jhm\arc\images\2017\sts\jan>e:\pkg\win64\i view\i_view64.exe

When I run v4.25 i_view32.exe a Control-M will randomly display an image file in the current working directory. When I run v4.44 i_view64.exe a Control-M will *not* randomly display an image in the current working directory.

The functionality I wish to preserve from v4.25 to v4.44 is:

1. The Options/Properties/Start options: setting "None" default to the current working directory as opposed to the "Last used folder"
2. Enable the View/<browsing> menu items if one or more image files exist in the current working directory

I examined the Start option: setting behavior by doing a File/Open... to determine what directory "None" uses as a default.

[jhmpub]

I contacted Irfan and he was very helpful. He provided several workarounds but I chose opening a "blank.jpg" image that serves two purposes.

1. it sets the IrfanView's current working directory to be the same as the launching command shell
2. it enables View menu navigation items to load random, next, first, last etc., from the current working directory

I accomplished the workaround with a perl wrapper script. Here is a link to the script and supporting files if anyone is interested:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6HZtsotckwSNzlGakN5NVhkUXc?usp=sharing