TTDPC: New configuration program - Version 1.3.1 Released

[Csaboka]

Something goes wrong for me with the new version, it seems...

[Patchman]

The latest nightly writes categories differently, so don't try it with that until AndersI implements the new category system.

[AndersI]

As Patchman says. That switches.xml doesn't contain any categories at all so all switches are connected to an unnamed category root. Try pressing the '+' button.

@Patchman: Why did you remove Categories completely from the -!S- xml file? I thought you would use another command for the new, category tree, format? Or are Categories so new that nothing (except TTDPC) uses them?

[Patchman]

Why did you remove Categories completely from the -!S- xml file? I thought you would use another command for the new, category tree, format? Or are Categories so new that nothing (except TTDPC) uses them?

The latter... your program is the first to use them. And once it implements the new category scheme, there's no need to write the old category information anyway, so I thought I'd just remove it.

[AndersI]

OK. I'll let the old code coexist with the new, at least for a while...

[WWTBAM]

I just tried it with the latest dos nightly as thats what i use and i brakes the cd path switch which is essential for dos ttdp. It replaces the : in the cdpath with an =.

[AndersI]

I just tried it with the latest dos nightly as thats what i use and i brakes the cd path switch which is essential for dos ttdp. It replaces the : in the cdpath with an =.

Unfortunately it doesn't happen for me when I try to reproduce it (or I don't understand the problem ). Which version of TTDPC are you using? Can you pm me your config files (switches.xml, ttdpatch.cfg)?

[WWTBAM]

you know what it was probably my computer lagging which caused me to accidently open ttdxc. but i never fully opened ttdxc.

[AndersI]

Version 0.2.5.2 is out.

- Handles both the new and the old format of SWITCHES.XML (the new format is available from the nightlies only, for the moment)
- Categories are correctly folded into a tree, giving less items on the root level, even when the old xml format is read.
- If ttdpatch(w).exe is not found in the current folder, TTDPC lets you select the folder where TTD is. This is remembered in TTDPC.INI (in the same folder as TTDPC.EXE)
- Most error conditions give a message and aborts the program.

First post updated accordingly.

[nicfer]

And one more suggestion: add button "Run TTD" which closes TTPC and starts TTD.

Seconded. Will be good see the other features of ttdxc (no the one for updating the configurator because it will need a host). If you do this I will uninstall my ttdxc and use this .

[AndersI]

Version 0.3 uploaded (first post).

You can now press F1 on a switch to get the manual page opened in your preferred browser.

[Patchman]

You can now press F1 on a switch to get the manual page opened in your preferred browser.

Only in latest nightly/next beta, I presume?

[DaleStan]

OK. I've finally gotten around to testing this:

In approximate order of discovery:

1. Version 0.3.0.0 wants to find newswitches.xml, a file that TTDPatch does not write. (Renaming switches.xml to newswitches.xml repairs this problem.)
2. When selecting one of the switch categories, the caption under special says "click or press right arrow to expand". Neither of these works, but double-clicking (as suggested by the tool tip) does, as does pressing enter.
3. The lines

   Code: Select all

   experimentalfeatures.slowcrossing off
   experimentalfeatures.cooperative on
   experimentalfeatures.mandatorygrm off
   experimentalfeatures.incvehconsist on

   (but with the canon patch-generated comments) are listed in the gui as:

   Code: Select all

   experimentalfeatures off
   experimentalfeatures.slowcrossing off
   experimentalfeatures.cooperative on
   experimentalfeatures.mandatorygrm off
   experimentalfeatures.incvehconsist on

   and saved as same except that the bits are all commented out.
   It appears that the switch is labeled as on if and only if the first bit is on.
   (The same issue appears for other bitswitches where the first bit is off.)
   This continues to happen for "experimentalfeatures 10".
4. Minor: The line "bitswitch on" is unnecessary if immediately followed by individually set bits.
5. In the switch tree view, the mouse wheel moves the selection, not the scroll bar.
6. Minor: It is possible to enter invalid digts into the mountains and curves field. I would prefer if such characters were simply refused.
7. Each digit of moresteam must be in the range 0..5, rather than the number as a whole being limited to fifty-five.
8. There is a curious "<?>" attached to multihead's comment, and I do not find evidence of it in Patch's switches.xml.
9. Turning an on a bitswitch that is off does not set any values for its bits. Was this intended?
10. Feature request: Put the tgr* and towngrowth* switches (except for towngrowthratemode) in their own category, and/or don't show them unless towngrowthratemode is 2.
11. Feature request: Turn on a bitswitch whenever one of its bits is set/changed.
12. Feature request: It is invalid to have the sum of the three aibuild*chance switches exceed 65535. Prevent this.
13. Feature request: Provide the option of setting aibuild*chance in percents.
14. The tab order needs fixing. IMO, the radio buttons should come before the value editbox, and the non-existent control after the Range editbox and before the Value editbox should be removed. Possibly other changes too, but these seem the most important, currently.
    
    And now for the trying-to-break-things part:
15. The #bbbb format for bitswitches is not recognized.
16. Setting 0 when it is out of range (eg planespeed 0) is not properly recognized as off. (But it does work for on/off switches, and correctly selects closest-valid for other out-of-range values).

Yes, there are a lot, but several of them I consider minor, and several more are feature requests.

All told, not bad. I only found one config-file reading bug that results in incorrect output, and I'm hoping that one won't be too hard to fix.
All other file-reading bugs appear to be GUI-only, and unless I change them, they go back out the same way they were read.

[eis_os]

To distribute the app in TTDPatchAutoInstaller it would be good to have a webpage or the permission to let it download from the autoinstaller site behind the scene... So it always have the same zip filename... Which reminds me, I think I have to talk to Josef to get a symbolic link to the lastest nightly

[AndersI]

You can now press F1 on a switch to get the manual page opened in your preferred browser.

Only in latest nightly/next beta, I presume?

Actually no. You will get a manual page even with older versions of switches.xml, assuming that there is a wiki page with the same name as the switch. If there isn't it seems you get a nice page with a lot of links.

[AndersI]

OK. I've finally gotten around to testing this

Thank you very much for the comprehensive list! I'll get back later with more complete answers (I'm at work now, vacation is over), I'll just make a quick note here:

The 'newswitches.xml' is of course my mistake, leaving testing code in there. Sorry.

I have absolutely no plans to add any intelligence/knowledge of patch switches into the program itself. The xml file is the definitive rule, no more, no less. That's the whole point of the program, it shouldn't get obsolete if something changes, and that means 'completely data driven'. I'm fully open to extending the information in the xml file, for example the smoke value really needs a new data type 'one decimal digit bit switches packed in an integer, with individual ranges' - or maybe a shorter name

We can continue that part of the discussion in my other thread The Category field in switches.xml has no text description if someone can change the title to something better: 'Suggested extensions to switches.xml' for example.

[eis_os]

Click edit on your first post

And maybe try to answer my last post thanks...

[SpComb]

To distribute the app in TTDPatchAutoInstaller it would be good to have a webpage or the permission to let it download from the autoinstaller site behind the scene... So it always have the same zip filename... Which reminds me, I think I have to talk to Josef to get a symbolic link to the lastest nightly

Also, consider coming up with a better / easier way to distribute your configurator than this - just throwing the various version-numbered zip files into a dir and letting apache list them (a README.txt would be a optional plus as well) works quite well. Then you can also have a symlink that you always update to point to the largest version number (or some PHP script that does it automagically).

Or, if you really want to, a svn repo with anon checkout and then manually do a extract on HEAD into a zip when you feel like releasing something.

EDIT: I just cooked up a simpleish script that does this for nr-ttd, see here. Something like that makes releasing a lot easier.

[AndersI]

New version (0.3.1.0) released. First post as usual.

@DaleStan:

1 - Fixed
2 - Fixed
3 - Fixed (maybe?)
4 - Fixed
5 - As Borland designed it. I don't think I will try to change that. Sorry.
6 - Needs extended info from SWITCHES.XML
7 - XML
8 - Fixed (I had forgot to handle %%)
9 - Fixed (maybe). But what exactly do you want to happen?
10 - XML
11 - Partly fixed (GUI doesn't show it yet)
12 - XML
13 - XML
14 - Fixed (maybe). What tab order would be best?
15 - Fixed (I didn't know this existed)
16 - Fixed when reading old configs, will never be written out.

Thanks for the testing (and suggestions)!

@eis_os: When TTDPC (or whatever it should be called) has reached version 1.0 (ready for newbies, accepted by oldies and multi-language ready) you are free to put it anywhere you want. Until it has been accepted as working it shouldn't be distributed at all, only beta tested. The Delphi source code will also be available.

[DaleStan]

Much improved. A few more notes, though.

3) Doesn't work for me. Attached is my config. experimentalfeatures forcegameoptions, and pathbasedsignalling are the three examples.
4) Not fixed here, but, like I said, minor.
9) I, too, would choose to set all bits to default. Setting all bits off and setting all bits on also come to mind as potentially valid choices.
11) Doesn't work for me, either in the GUI or in ttdpatch.cfg.new. See planecrashcontrol in the attached config.
14) The current tab order seems fine to me.
16) Not fixed here. See the planespeed switch in the attached config.