CTPEd v0.2beta Release

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
It would be nice if you could post it, John. So I would know which features aren't on your to do list so I can request only the ones that aren't already on it.

It's in CTPEd.txt but I'll post it here anyway:

- Extend the GL template system to assist with SLIC coding.
- Add error checking systems to allow you to track down problems before you crash CTP2.
- Write more structure files (You can help me with this! Yes, that means YOU!)
- Optimise the code to increase speed and reduce memory consumption.
- Add the option to hide fields which are superfluous
- Add sorting tool to rearrange entries in files
- Add error checking tool to spot common problems
- Add dropdown list for field values with only certain options like CanSee:
- Add multi-language support
- Preserve comments in files
- Allow for varied export formats
- Track modification to remove unnecessary overwrites on export

So far I made two other *.ces files the risks.ces that works fine and the messageicon.ces that doesn't work actual it is a file of type three (only contains strings which are used at another place of the game) but it also contains a number at the start. Unfortunatly the t's and f's for type one doesn't work for type three.

OK

In the attachment you can find three files the risks.ces, the messageicon.ces and the citysize.ces, the last file works as I replaced citysize.ces in the default.ced by citysize0.txt.

If you put citysize0.txt as the file name then that will by written in the gamefile.txt and then when you try to play the mod CTP2 will look for citysize00.txt, and not find it. I'm not quite sure if that's what you've done.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by J Bytheway
- Write more structure files (You can help me with this! Yes, that means YOU!)

I posted three files in my last post but I wonder why you didn't downloaded them.

Originally posted by J Bytheway
If you put citysize0.txt as the file name then that will by written in the gamefile.txt and then when you try to play the mod CTP2 will look for citysize00.txt, and not find it. I'm not quite sure if that's what you've done.

I did that but actual only to test wheather my file is ok.

-Martin

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
I posted three files in my last post but I wonder why you didn't downloaded them.

I was in a hurry, I knew I wasn't going to get any work done on CTPEd today and my reply was on a new page, so I would have had to go back to the previous page to find them.

But I really do appreciate all your help .

[J Bytheway]

Well, in my typical unreliable style I haven't been doing what I said I would - I've implimented an (optional) shared clipboard to facilitate copying entries from one file to another of the same type (though only one at a time...), and now I've started on making the citysize?.txt files work.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by J Bytheway
Well, in my typical unreliable style I haven't been doing what I said I would - I've implimented an (optional) shared clipboard to facilitate copying entries from one file to another of the same type (though only one at a time...), and now I've started on making the citysize?.txt files work.

That are good news John. Actual what I like to see in the next version of CTPEd is the support of multiple comment styles in one file, that would allow me to start the strategies.ces and all the *.ces files related to this file.

Comment preservation is the other thing that has a high priority for until, can't be shure that my comments are also intact after editing the files I can't start to use CTPEd.

-Martin

[Martin Gühmann]

OK here are three more *..ces files, the first one the wondermovie.ces does work. The EndGameObjects.ces doesn't work so far, because of the diffrent comment style, and I don't want to modify the file for this purpose, the last one is the Newsprites.ces, don't know if it work, I didn't tested it, because I don't know how to make CTPEd to use it.

You can find the tree files in the attachment.

-Martin

[J Bytheway]

Thanks. I'm still not sure about Newsprite myself, since it's something of a unique file thanks to the way gamefile.txt is put together. No progress yesterday because I tried (and failed) to climb Table Mountain.

[Martin Gühmann]

Original posted by J Bytheway
I'm still not sure about Newsprite myself, since it's something of a unique file thanks to the way gamefile.txt is put together.

It is a unique file. Yes it is true but only for the original game and the ctp2.exe. For ModSwapper mods it is just under the name of the mod. So the only unique thing of it is that it is under the name and not above. But actual this file has to be linked with the unit.txt, also other files must be linked together, for example if you had a unit to the unit.txt then it should be added to the unitbuildlist.txt. But I think this has a low priority.

Original posted by J Bytheway
No progress yesterday because I tried (and failed) to climb Table Mountain.

Yes some sport is always good, I am shure it is a wonderful place espeacily you climbed it with your own hands and feet.

-Martin

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
It is a unique file. Yes it is true but only for the original game and the ctp2.exe. For ModSwapper mods it is just under the name of the mod. So the only unique thing of it is that it is under the name and not above. But actual this file has to be linked with the unit.txt, also other files must be linked together, for example if you had a unit to the unit.txt then it should be added to the unitbuildlist.txt. But I think this has a low priority.

I foolishly carried over the uniqueness into CTPEd - that was largely unnecessary and I think should be relatively easy to fix.

Yes some sport is always good, I am shure it is a wonderful place espeacily you climbed it with your own hands and feet.

Indeed - I did (I've been up the cable car before), but I'm a lot more out of shape than I thought, after 120m (out of 600m) I gave up with the climbing and went along the contour path instead.

It was mostly feet and not hands - I was going up the easy path which is steep, but just like a steep (irregular, rocky) staircase.

[J Bytheway]

Have *finally* got citysize working (I opened them without a crash, anyway - see attachment) . It was somewhat harder than I had anticipated... Are there any files which refer to the things therein, because that probably wouldn't work at the moment?.. I also haven't tried editing them yet, but I'm fairly sure that'll work.

(And the code gets ever uglier... I'm close to the point where it would be a good idea to rewrite the whole lot, taking into account all the lessons I've learnt on the way. But I won't. I might end up rewriting fairly large chunks if I feel inclined, but even that seems unlikely at prsent.)

[J Bytheway]

OK, I'm working slowly on the comment preservation, but I've run into a problem with the comments which are associated with the various field instances.

Because the entry is totally taken to pieces and rebuilt from scratch every time you change it in the entries editing window (which may seem silly, but it works well) the comments cannot easily be associated with the field instance object as would appear to be best at first (and that's what I thought I'd do...). I can try to track them in a different way or attempt to preserve the association over the deconstruction and reconstruction of all the field instances, but neither option is easy.

The substructures make the whole problem considerably more complex too.

If anyone has any advice, I'd welcome it, but otherwise I'm just letting you know that this is unlikely to be done any time soon.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by J Bytheway
OK, I'm working slowly on the comment preservation, but I've run into a problem with the comments which are associated with the various field instances.

Because the entry is totally taken to pieces and rebuilt from scratch every time you change it in the entries editing window (which may seem silly, but it works well) the comments cannot easily be associated with the field instance object as would appear to be best at first (and that's what I thought I'd do...). I can try to track them in a different way or attempt to preserve the association over the deconstruction and reconstruction of all the field instances, but neither option is easy.

The substructures make the whole problem considerably more complex too.

If anyone has any advice, I'd welcome it, but otherwise I'm just letting you know that this is unlikely to be done any time soon.

You could treat value of the field and the associated comment as one argument. At least this would work for fields with values like numbers or strings.

-Martin

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
You could treat value of the field and the associated comment as one argument. At least this would work for fields with values like numbers or strings.

This has problems - primarily that it makes the values much longer, but also the comments can contain new lines and it's harder to resolve a string to an object.

The best suggestion I've had so far is from my Dad - to store the comments in the ToolTipText of the controls on the entries editing window.

In the mean time I've been working on the easy bit, and I have at least got the comments being preserved now, but they're coming out in the wrong place, for example, I put this in:

#a

ADVANCE_ADV_INFANTRY_TACTICS #b
{ #c
#d
 Prerequisites #e
#f
ADVANCE_NAVAL_AVIATION #g
#h
 Prerequisites ADVANCE_VERTICAL_FLIGHT_AIRCRAFT
 Cost 43080
 Icon ICON_ADVANCE_ADV_INFANTRY_TACTICS
 Branch 0
 Age AGE_THREE #x
} #y
#z

And got this out:

#a

#b
#c
ADVANCE_ADV_INFANTRY_TACTICS {
#d
#e
#f
#g
#h

 Prerequisites ADVANCE_NAVAL_AVIATION
 Prerequisites ADVANCE_VERTICAL_FLIGHT_AIRCRAFT
 Cost 43080
 Icon ICON_ADVANCE_ADV_INFANTRY_TACTICS
#x
 Branch 0
#y
 Age AGE_THREE
}
#z

It looks like they're all being read a line too early or something similar. I have no ideas at the m,oment but I'm sure I'll sort it out...

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by J Bytheway
It looks like they're all being read a line too early or something similar. I have no ideas at the m,oment but I'm sure I'll sort it out...

I am shure, too. And when it is done I think it is time for the next public version of CTPEd. So far I tried to make a DiffDB.ces, but it contains some difficuilties.

The first one is that it contains six entries for the different difficuilty settings, but unfortunatly these entries don't have a name. One entry just opens with { and it is closed with }.

The second problem I had was that there are also fileds with more then one argument. Actual I have no idea how the according entry in the *.ces file should look so I only could guess.

The third problem I found is that I have a substructure it just contains a list of advances and two other arguments, actual I have no real idea how to treat with it. So I tried to treat it as a repeatly appearing field without a name.

I think that a substructure in a substructure shouldn't be a problem.

So finally I tried to create a new project from a gamefile.txt, but unfortunatly I got a runtime error '1035' Fields allow multiple but has no argument.

Unfortunatly this error don't give me a file location neither in the *.ces file nor in the *.txt, as the DiffDB.txt file is huge I gave up. Maybe you could take a look on it. You find the for files I made in the attachment.

-Martin

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
I am shure, too. And when it is done I think it is time for the next public version of CTPEd.

OK, time for another progress report... Comment preservation is apparently all done. At present any comment associated with a deleted field instance or entry is lost - if that's a big deal for anyone then tell me and I'll add the option to save them as I described a few posts ago.

Other than that I'm just about finished, and I will release the new version soon, after a little more testing, and a couple of last small changes (like that noted below). Of course it's always the last small changes which make for bugs .

I was planning to impliment the adding of the info about where to put blank lines, etc. in the exported files, but I probably won't bother since it's been nearly a fortnight since the last release.

So far I tried to make a DiffDB.ces, but it contains some difficuilties.

I had looked at DiffDB.txt, and silently screamed because it's so totally different from the other files (in all the ways that you said).

I'm inclined to not support it. It's a lot of work for just one file, and I think other things are more important. Certainly I won't be supporting it soon.

In the mean time I'll make a format 0 .ces file for it.

The second problem I had was that there are also fileds with more then one argument. Actual I have no idea how the according entry in the *.ces file should look so I only could guess.

The NumArgs thing in theory allows more than one argument, but in practice I haven't implimented it yet, and anything other than 0 will be treated as 1.

The third problem I found is that I have a substructure it just contains a list of advances and two other arguments, actual I have no real idea how to treat with it. So I tried to treat it as a repeatly appearing field without a name.

That wouldn't work - that's where your 'field allows multiple but has no arguments' error is probably coming from.

I think that a substructure in a substructure shouldn't be a problem.

I've worked very hard to ensure that it isn't a problem. But it isn't used anywhere yet, AFAIK.

So finally I tried to create a new project from a gamefile.txt, but unfortunatly I got a runtime error '1035' Fields allow multiple but has no argument.

Unfortunatly this error don't give me a file location neither in the *.ces file nor in the *.txt, as the DiffDB.txt file is huge I gave up. Maybe you could take a look on it. You find the for files I made in the attachment.

I'll make that error more clear, but as I said above, if you put fields with no name they're almost certainly the problem.