Missing resources: is the '!' (bang) character special in some way?

Question

Hello all,
I have a very simple java application jar file that behaves differently depending on the path it resides in.
http://www.3feetunder.com/files/bangtest.jar (471K)
It works correctly if the path is:
c:\test
but not if the path is:
c:\!test
it seems that the '!' (bang) character is special in some way that prevents the icons in the jar file from loading.
Other characters are fine like...
c:\~test
c:\^test
c:\@test
they all work.
I'm using jdk 1.4.0 beta 3 if it matters.
Give it a try and let me know what the heck is going on.
Run it in \test first to see the toolbar icons, then run it in \!test to see them not load.
thanks in advance
Krick

Answer 1

Krick,
Yes, the bang character is special. It is used to construct a Jar URL. For example:
jar:file://c:/abc/images.jar/!hello.gif
refers to "hello.gif" in the jar "images" in the dir "c:/abc".
See the JarURLConnection class for more info.
-Ron