Oolite Bulletins

Wildeblood wrote:

Here's a thing: in the last hour or so, someone downloaded the previous to current version of Trading Assistant. That implies they did not select "update expansions list" before they selected "install expansion pack".

Either a nag screen to "Ensure you have the most up-to-date list of expansions available", or words to that effect, needs to be included, or more simply, the advice on the Oolite.org website to use a different download URL for each new version should say the opposite: use the same download URL if possible.

Wildeblood wrote:

Either a nag screen to "Ensure you have the most up-to-date list of expansions available", or words to that effect, needs to be included, or more simply, the advice on the Oolite.org website to use a different download URL for each new version should say the opposite: use the same download URL if possible.

Neelix wrote:

Perhaps when starting the expansion pack manager the install option should be disabled until the list has been updated?

It should be easy to add an "N days old" notice for it, though.

cim wrote:

Neelix wrote:

Perhaps when starting the expansion pack manager the install option should be disabled until the list has been updated?

The list is already bigger than about half the OXPs available through it.

It should be easy to add an "N days old" notice for it, though.

maik wrote:

Or, you could make it more expensive and precise if you did the check everytime the player entered the OXZ manager.

aegidian wrote:

OXZ's need to undergo a substantial amount of sanity checking before they should be made available.

cim wrote:

The list is already bigger than about half the OXPs available through it.

It should be easy to add an "N days old" notice for it, though.

Validating the OXP before packaging won't catch everything since the OXZ format is stricter - filenames are case-sensitive even on Windows, manifest is required.

cim wrote:

Authors wanting to distribute OXZs should probably also use that as their testing format while developing.

cim wrote:

Different download URL stops people downloading a 100Mb expansion only to find out that their list wasn't up to date and it won't install. You can always delete the old version's file.

Thargoid wrote:

cim wrote:

Authors wanting to distribute OXZs should probably also use that as their testing format while developing.

At the end yes, but not during developing. There are too many programs (at least under Windows) that won't play nicely with a zip file, and continually zipping and unzipping (or using temporary files outside of the OXZ zip) is a recipe for disaster - files getting lost, wrong versions being included and similar issues.

OXZs are very good for general distribution and for most users (those who actually want to just use them rather than fiddle with them), but for actual in-progress authoring then the older uncompressed OXP format is your friend.

Paradox wrote:

My issues are the inability of the game to recognize the fact that I have an oxp that I downloaded from the wiki. Random Hits Resources is a good example for me as well. I too gave up trying to download them via the game after about 8 minutes. I have a 20 mb connection here in the states, and it only took me about 3-4 minutes from the wiki. Anyways, now of course the game does not acknowledge that I have the necessary resources. They still work in the game obviously, but, surely, something can be done to allow the game to acknowledge oxp's as well as oxz's.

Paradox wrote:

Another issue, are oxz's with dependencies, that do not tell you, specifically, what those dependencies are. This is a problem with authoring, I understand, but an issue never the less.

This is due mostly to the fact that the current incarnation of the Expansion Manager reads the dependency field in the manifest.plist, which explicitly states which OXZ is required, but it doesn't display that information to the player

Diziet Sma wrote:

Thargoid wrote:

cim wrote:

Authors wanting to distribute OXZs should probably also use that as their testing format while developing.

At the end yes, but not during developing. There are too many programs (at least under Windows) that won't play nicely with a zip file, and continually zipping and unzipping (or using temporary files outside of the OXZ zip) is a recipe for disaster - files getting lost, wrong versions being included and similar issues.

OXZs are very good for general distribution and for most users (those who actually want to just use them rather than fiddle with them), but for actual in-progress authoring then the older uncompressed OXP format is your friend.

I can only assume you haven't tried cim's OXP/Z build scripts, then.. they make development using OXZ format a breeze. Just edit your files in your project's folder (can be anywhere on your computer), run the script, and a freshly-built OXZ will appear in AddOns. Test, rinse and repeat. Every time the script is run, the old OXZ is removed, and a new one is built on the spot and inserted. It gives you the best of both worlds, with practically no effort required. (it neatly solves all those 'lost' files and wrong version problems, too)

Diziet Sma wrote:

Paradox wrote:
My issues are the inability of the game to recognize the fact that I have an oxp that I downloaded from the wiki. Random Hits Resources is a good example for me as well. I too gave up trying to download them via the game after about 8 minutes. I have a 20 mb connection here in the states, and it only took me about 3-4 minutes from the wiki. Anyways, now of course the game does not acknowledge that I have the necessary resources. They still work in the game obviously, but, surely, something can be done to allow the game to acknowledge oxp's as well as oxz's.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding you here, but from my own experience, if you manually download an OXZ from the wiki, so long as you place it in /GNUstep/Library/ApplicationSupport/Oolite/ManagedAddOns the Oolite Expansion Manager will recognise that you have the necessary resources installed.