Oolite Bulletins

Looking at https://nshipster.com/nscoding/, it seems NSCoding can emit SQLite, XML, or NSData formats.
Would it be possible to receive the data from http://addons.oolite.org/api/1.0/overview as XML?

Then the other steps to analyze data and reformat it into wiki pages would be one simple XSLT step - independent of the chosen programming language.

Ok, I am two steps further now.

I created a parser for this strange data format and have an application that can now parse http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Torus_Drive, transform it into a W3C DOM and transform it using XSLT. Now I have something like an automatic index of expansions.

Then I went further and extracted the download_url information to download and cache all the OXPs in a local directory. They also get checked whether they are valid ZIP files and contain a manifest.plist.

Interestingly I now have a description (usually a brief summary) from the overview, and there is another description in the OXPs manifest that looks similarly brief. So no much gain.

Where would an OXP contain further information? Or should the check simply be whether there is a valid information_url?

hiran wrote: ↑Fri Apr 09, 2021 7:58 pm

Ok, I am two steps further now.

I created a parser for this strange data format and have an application that can now parse http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Torus_Drive, transform it into a W3C DOM and transform it using XSLT. Now I have something like an automatic index of expansions.

Then I went further and extracted the download_url information to download and cache all the OXPs in a local directory. They also get checked whether they are valid ZIP files and contain a manifest.plist.

Interestingly I now have a description (usually a brief summary) from the overview, and there is another description in the OXPs manifest that looks similarly brief. So no much gain.

Where would an OXP contain further information? Or should the check simply be whether there is a valid information_url?

Look at the note I wrote to you on the Village Pump on the wiki: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/EliteWiki:Village_pump

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sat Apr 10, 2021 8:08 pm

Look at the note I wrote to you on the Village Pump on the wiki: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/EliteWiki:Village_pump

Thank you for pointing that out. Well, if we want to autogenerate pages/reports from OXPs we should look at the information within the OXPs. Meanwhile I stumbled over a few OXPs with <expansion_name>_README.txt inside. That could be used - but it is just a plain old ASCII file for humans to read - no markup inside. We may want to top that up, e.g. allowing HTML.

On the other hand I am tearing my hair on the manifest.plist data format. See http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Manife ... tom_Format
- inside a dictionary, do we have quoted or unquoted values?
- inside a dictionary, do we have quoted or unquoted keys?
- do we allow/need colons or/and equals characters between key and value?
- does the 'key'='value' always end with a semicolon or is that just required to separate them?
- in lists, do we always need commas or just as a separator between values? How come some lists end with a comma?

Somehow I hope this is all not intentional and noone checked these typos. And then I am wondering how all these OXPs work in Oolite today...

hiran wrote: ↑Sat Apr 10, 2021 10:50 pm

On the other hand I am tearing my hair on the manifest.plist data format. See http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Manife ... tom_Format
- inside a dictionary, do we have quoted or unquoted values?
- inside a dictionary, do we have quoted or unquoted keys?
- do we allow/need colons or/and equals characters between key and value?
- does the 'key'='value' always end with a semicolon or is that just required to separate them?
- in lists, do we always need commas or just as a separator between values? How come some lists end with a comma?

Somehow I hope this is all not intentional and noone checked these typos. And then I am wondering how all these OXPs work in Oolite today...

You may want to have a look at these links for a general description of the GNUstep property list grammar:
http://www.gnustep.it/nicola/Tutorials/ ... ode29.html
http://wiki.gnustep.org/index.php/Property_Lists

Thinking of re-organising the Oolite Main Page http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_Main_Page, now that Hiran has started tweaking it!

It currently features the following order of boxes/links:
I'd like to add a link to the OXZ list on the Oolite.org website and reorganise it in what I hope is a more logical fashion, with Ships and Equipment closer together, etc.
Any comments?

My fiction seems to be missing from the Oolite Fiction page, Cholly. You could perhaps add An Ideal Victim to it as well - it and its thread contain hints on how to cross the Great Rift in the seventh octant.

Cody wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 9:20 am

My fiction seems to be missing from the Oolite Fiction page, Cholly. You could perhaps add An Ideal Victim to it as well - it and its thread contain hints on how to cross the Great Rift in the seventh octant.

Delighted!

another_commander wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 8:26 am

You may want to have a look at these links for a general description of the GNUstep property list grammar:
http://www.gnustep.it/nicola/Tutorials/ ... ode29.html
http://wiki.gnustep.org/index.php/Property_Lists

Good catch! I was searching for something like that.
But there remain questions.

http://wiki.gnustep.org/index.php/Property_Lists#Dictionary wrote:

As can be seen, each key-value pair is separated by a semi-colon. Within the pair, the key is seperated from the value with an "equals" (=) sign. The key name is arbitrary, and not put in inverted commas (""). Shown above are: an unknown type (could be some sort of string - TODO), a string, an array, a number and another dictionary (respectively).

The example they show has more semi-colons than the amount required for separation.
Plus if this were authorative, quite a chunk of OXPs the Expansion Manager works with would be syntactically wrong - even the Oolite documentation shows wrong examples at http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Manife ... uired_keys. The keys are all quoted.

While creating a parser with all such exceptions is not impossible (actually I just did it) I am still wondering how all these nice OXPs actually work in Oolite. It must have a very forgiving parser, and I hope to meet the same kind of forgiveness...

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 9:11 am

Thinking of re-organising the Oolite Main Page http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_Main_Page, now that Hiran has started tweaking it!

It seems I skipped some approval process. I am sorry and will discuss ideas here first.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 9:11 am

I'd like to add a link to the OXZ list on the Oolite.org website and reorganise it in what I hope is a more logical fashion, with Ships and Equipment closer together, etc.

Code: Select all

Instruction Manual                     Expand Oolite via OXZs

FAQ                                    Expand Oolite via OXPs

Ships                                  Planet List

Equipment                              Stations

Missions                               Powers & Organisations

Oolite Fiction                         Oolite Discussion Forum

Any comments?

Well as a newcomer I felt OXPs as a heading not very talkative. Hence I changed it.
If OXPs and OXZs shall be supported, why not keep that as a detail and not add it to the main page? So the main page would indicate a user that Oolite can be expanded so he/she/it knows when to click that link. In the following page it can still be mentioned that there are two mechanisms with an explanation when to choose which.

Maybe the Ships, Planet List, Equipment, Stations, Missions and Powers stuff could be moved into an 'Encyclopedia Galactica' that explains the simulated universe, while the other topics would set the frame how to install and operate the simulator itself that allows accessing the simulated universe.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 10:12 am

Delighted!

I'm obliged, your wizardliness!

hiran wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 10:29 am

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 9:11 am

Thinking of re-organising the Oolite Main Page http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_Main_Page, now that Hiran has started tweaking it!

It seems I skipped some approval process. I am sorry and will discuss ideas here first.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 9:11 am

I'd like to add a link to the OXZ list on the Oolite.org website and reorganise it in what I hope is a more logical fashion, with Ships and Equipment closer together, etc.

Code: Select all

Instruction Manual                     Expand Oolite via OXZs

FAQ                                    Expand Oolite via OXPs

Ships                                  Planet List

Equipment                              Stations

Missions                               Powers & Organisations

Oolite Fiction                         Oolite Discussion Forum

Any comments?

Well as a newcomer I felt OXPs as a heading not very talkative. Hence I changed it.
If OXPs and OXZs shall be supported, why not keep that as a detail and not add it to the main page? So the main page would indicate a user that Oolite can be expanded so he/she/it knows when to click that link. In the following page it can still be mentioned that there are two mechanisms with an explanation when to choose which.

Maybe the Ships, Planet List, Equipment, Stations, Missions and Powers stuff could be moved into an 'Encyclopedia Galactica' that explains the simulated universe, while the other topics would set the frame how to install and operate the simulator itself that allows accessing the simulated universe.

Hiran, I don't usually discuss ideas first. If it is a minor tweak, or including something important, I just do it.

I'm consulting here about a major rejig to the page because I may well have missed something - or somebody may have a better idea than mine.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 11:46 am

Hiran, I don't usually discuss ideas first. If it is a minor tweak, or including something important, I just do it.

I'm consulting here about a major rejig to the page because I may well have missed something - or somebody may have a better idea than mine.

Just another idea, when I thought about my own proposal:

There can be different approaches how to present the nice documentation on the wiki to users.
So the difference between simulator and the simulated universe is only one, and is topic oriented.

Another one could be use-case/experience level oriented:
Go for basic functionality (like in a getting started szenario), where the first installation and then the first steps in the universe are clubbed together.
There could be an advanced section as well that covers hints for missions, customization of Oolite and the such.
Wizard level could be to tweak the Ooniverse via expansions, while god level would then dive under the hood of the simulator and modify that mechanics.

Which would be preferrable? I would not know myself and leave it up to the user. Which means we'd have to maintain multiple entry pages showing the same information just differently aggregated. Which indicates all content could be marked up with categories, and these categories are then used to create automatic index pages...

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 9:11 am

Thinking of re-organising the Oolite Main Page http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_Main_Page, now that Hiran has started tweaking it!

It currently features the following order of boxes/links:

Code: Select all

Instruction Manual                      Expand Oolite via OXPs

FAQ                                     Oolite Discussion Forum

Ships                                   Stations

Missions                                Equipment

Planet List                             Powers & Organisations

                  Oolite Fiction

I'd like to add a link to the OXZ list on the Oolite.org website and reorganise it in what I hope is a more logical fashion, with Ships and Equipment closer together, etc.

Code: Select all

Instruction Manual                     Expand Oolite via OXZs

FAQ                                    Expand Oolite via OXPs

Ships                                  Planet List

Equipment                              Stations

Missions                               Powers & Organisations

Oolite Fiction                         Oolite Discussion Forum

Any comments?

It looks good to me, but the final decision will be with a_c and Malik.

montana05 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 12:47 pm

It looks good to me, but the final decision will be with a_c and Malik.

Guys, the wiki content has never been controlled in any way by the developers (excluding minor changes here and there when inaccuracies or factual errors are noted). Feel free to do what needs to be done to improve it.