portalocker in Win98

[Steve Holden]

"Cliff Wells" <LogiplexSoftware at earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:mailman.1042578749.1393.python-list at python.org...
> On Tue, 2003-01-14 at 12:48, Richard Jones wrote:
>
> > If anyone knows how to lock a file on win98, I'd really appreciate a
hint.
>
> Win98 only supports locking entire computers, not files <wink>
>
> Assuming 98 doesn't support locking files (which I believe to be true,
> but am willing to be corrected on), what I would probably do in this
> case is create a "lock server" using a network socket and have
> applications acquire a lock from it.  I expect you could even make the
> API mirror the portalock API (which I've never used and so can't comment
> on) and use it as a drop-in replacement.
>
> Even if 98 supported file locking, I expect this approach would be
> superior.
>

Clearly something quite advanced is required here. I spoke to the Microsoft
help desk.

After a three-hour session in which I educated them about the benefits of
Python and the features and facilities offered by the language, they came up
with the following suggestion: "Make use of the Microsoft Office locking
algorithm by creating a COM object encapsulation an instance of Word and
have it open a  document. If the document is already open then Word wil
report an error that your program can use to determine the lock is currently
set."

Brilliant: shows that all that money I spend on Microsoft support isn't
wasted. I tried it, but unfortunately the COM implementation in Word doesn't
report the error correctly. Microsoft have recorded this as a bug, and will
get back to me if ever anybody fixes it.

tongue-in-cheek-ly y'rs  - steve
--
Steve Holden                                  http://www.holdenweb.com/
Python Web Programming                 http://pydish.holdenweb.com/pwp/
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