Oolite Bulletins

pagroove wrote:

Courier work - Screenie of the parcel contracts

Not the parcel contracts page, but a pic of my current ship's manifest instead - a handy placeholder, perhaps.

I'll try to add some manifest.plist to some of my oxp's end convert them to oxz's. From the mac's point of view, I see no advantage of the oxz format, as they were single files already, but for windows/linux I see an advantage with the new format.

The only thing that is not clear, is the 'download_url' in the manifest.plist. The wiki writes that every new version needs an unique url. But, when you have an oxz, you don't need an link to a version you already have, but a pointer to the location of the newest version.

The wiki also writes that the link should point to a location of the oxz only (also without the documentation). Does that mean we should store the oxz at two locations. One repacked in a new zip with the documentation and pure oxz file without the documentation? But, that should mean we must offer an additional file with only the documentation. Is that correct?

With my free box account, I have no option to generate a direct download link. That is only possible for a paying account. For the time being, I can put them on my own server at home. Seeing the download numbers in the past, that won't be a problem. (I have a 9 Mbit/s upload link).

Eric Walch wrote:

With my free box account, I have no option to generate a direct download link. That is only possible for a paying account. For the time being, I can put them on my own server at home. Seeing the download numbers in the past, that won't be a problem. (I have a 9 Mbit/s upload link).

You can also upload OXZ files to the wiki.

Eric Walch wrote:

The wiki writes that every new version needs an unique url.

Always put the version number into the filename, this prevent any confusion and caching problems.

Eric Walch wrote:

The wiki also writes that the link should point to a location of the oxz only (also without the documentation).

A detailed readme.txt should be within the oxz for sure imho (so no point to make one without it). In my practice the readme contain the same words as the wiki page (without screenshots).

Eric Walch wrote:

With my free box account, I have no option to generate a direct download link.

The wiki upload accepts any oxz under 150MB and features counted downloads. Over this you can use Cheyd's offer.

maik wrote:

You can also upload OXZ files to the wiki.

I was confused as with the wiki you can't define an download_url before uploading the oxz. So that makes it impossible to add the download_url in the manifest.plist. The wiki only writes that the "size_entry" does not need the be in the OXZ. That is probably also the case for the download_url and not needed in the manifest.plist inside the oxz. That must probably written more clear at the wiki.
I should just start adding them and I'll see it myself how it works. Although hosting them myself won't be a problem, it only will miss a download counter.

Norby wrote:

A detailed readme.txt should be in the oxz for sure imho

I always added them twice for my oxp's. One inside the oxp (not accessible for normal mac users) and one in the main zip. But, now, with the zip having a different extension, it will not be found by most users.

That means that the wiki page should now be a full replacement of the read_me or the page needs an additional download link for manual files. For my oxp's both were similar, but some oxp's had a very verbose documentation that you don't want to see at the wiki.

Eric Walch wrote:

So that makes it impossible to add the download_url in the manifest.plist.

This is a new change: you do not need to put this line into the oxz but into the admin page, please ask cim in pm for your login.
Before this change I uploaded my oxz into the wiki, then inserted the url and updated my oxz on the File: wiki page. Now the url is required only in the manifest.plist within the admin page and not in the oxz, which is the same but without url and file size.
The admin page is not in the final place yet, I think this is the reason why the wiki page of manifest.plist is not updated yet.

Eric Walch wrote:

I always added them twice for my oxp's. One inside the oxp (not accessible for normal mac users) and one in the main zip. But, now, with the zip having a different extension, it will not be found by most users.

I still think it should be in the oxz (in the main directory), for example the license part is important. Most user will not look into but a few is enough to leave in imho. Many file manager can step into a zipped file regadless the extension.

Eric Walch wrote:

some oxp's had a very verbose documentation that you don't want to see at the wiki.

I wish more verbose wiki pages, if one is too long then subpages can help for a while. The information_url is the pointer to the documentation, I think it always should be a wiki page and in extreme cases it can be a short page with important links including the documentation.

Eric Walch wrote:

I'll try to add some manifest.plist to some of my oxp's end convert them to oxz's. From the mac's point of view, I see no advantage of the oxz format, as they were single files already, but for windows/linux I see an advantage with the new format.

Mac still gets the advantage of in-Oolite installation and the OXZ format's dependency management. Also might get an advantage from the OXZ filesystem being case-sensitive even on Windows, so fewer bugs that way?

Eric Walch wrote:

The only thing that is not clear, is the 'download_url' in the manifest.plist. The wiki writes that every new version needs an unique url.

"should", not "must". The reason for having a new URL for each OXZ file is that - especially for big OXZs - downloading an OXZ in Oolite only to find that it's a version after the one your old index thinks should be there, so the download fails and you have to update your index file and then download it all again ... is potentially a bit frustrating. It's not a big deal - and Wiki docs updated to make it clear it's not necessary to have download_url inside the OXZ's copy.

Eric Walch wrote:

The wiki also writes that the link should point to a location of the oxz only (also without the documentation).

If using the download_url it'll usually be through Oolite's OXZ installer, and you wouldn't get to see the documentation. The information_url can either contain or link to the documentation, and you can still distribute an OXP format one as well which contains more documents.

I probably wouldn't put doc files inside the OXZ except perhaps notes for OXP developers looking to use/extend it - if you want a with-documentation download then a zip file containing the docs and the OXZ is probably the easiest way to do it.

I just noticed inside the game that the 'bit' symbol is used to give the file size of the oxz files instead of the 'Byte' symbol. According to IEC 80000-13, the byte symbol should be an uppercase 'B'. Specially when the uppercase 'M' is used for Mega, I would expect this also for Byte.

Fixed units. Thanks.

Thanks about the Byte

I have been busy uploading some oxz files. For one I ran into the omission of a read_me. It was a trojan horse equipment, disguised as useful equipment. In the old read_me, I could hide the clue about this between a lot more text. When people don't read the read_me and install it anyhow, they have to blame themselves.
Now I was somehow forced to add the single line with the clue in the short on-line description. (It contains a hint to make readers alert and the backwards spelled word 'trojan'). I still hope that most players miss the clue and install the equipment.

The blueprint for this scanner was retrieved from a captured thargoid ship after a minor battle in the Najort nebula.

I love the draft website!

I've updated the draft site with some of the suggestions - a few minor tweaks to the OXZ admin interface, some pictures for the "getting started" page, and some "core game" pictures for the gallery.

I'm still looking for good pictures for the "OXP" gallery - I'll be flying out with the cameras this weekend, but please keep taking and nominating more.

I have one of those on the list already.

A really good example of Povray Planets here if you need it - one of its finest, I reckon.