Oolite Bulletins

While the version column (for what version of Oolite is needed to run the OXP) can be removed, because only OXPs which run with whatever's latest-and-greatest will be listed.

...The date column is partially needed to quickly determine which OXPs have been recently updated. Even if only OXPs newer than 1 year old are dated, that'd still help me check if any of the 50+ OXPs I may be using can be updated.
A partial workaround for this would be to have a version number for the OXP listed in the OXP's name.

Not a good solution, Switeck. If someone makes a "sequel" OXP, "Bob's Excellent Story Oxp" and "Bob's Excellent Story Oxp 2" it can become very confusing. Names of OXPs and Version Numbers should NEVER be mixed.

Follow the guidance of the Prophet Ahruman and the Apostles (Developers) - Their wisdom is downloaded in every Oolite install... A 'this.title' and a 'this.version' in the built-in scripts...

Then the version of the OXP needs to be what's displayed under "version" column.

I'm happy for the version to be changed to have OXP version numbers (anyone volunteering to populate this?) or removed provided the Release Date column is kept. (Basically I want one or the other.)

Unless I get my wiki password reset, I'm afraid I cannot volunteer to be ramble assassin ( ) as I can only edit the wiki on my instant on OS on my laptop which still has a cookie for now but is far from convenient.

Previously I had been under the impression that OXP authors would be against this level of intrusion, but it seems not. If I can see that there are people willing to do this, then I have no objections to the variable length OXP Name and Summary column.

Volunteers, please come forward to be ramble assassins.

OK, I give up! I've clearly been voted down and the 'excess limit' looks like it wont happen. I understand why and agree in many ways the table will be better for it.
Wafflers beware, The Pumpkin is watching you

On a more constructive note, My view on the date and version columns is that we should swap them around to version then date, and make them relevent to the OXP. You can then see at a glance what the OXP version number is, and in the next column the release/update date.
Sensible?

Is it perhaps worth changing the column title from OXP Name and Brief Summary to something like OXP Name and Brief Summary (125 characters max.)? That way, there's no argument if someone goes over the score. 125 characters is arbitrary: I picked it because that's the length of what seems to be, at a glance, the longest short description there (Asteroid Storm).

Disembodied wrote:

Is it perhaps worth changing the column title from OXP Name and Brief Summary to something like OXP Name and Brief Summary (125 characters max.)? That way, there's no argument if someone goes over the score. 125 characters is arbitrary: I picked it because that's the length of what seems to be, at a glance, the longest short description there (Asteroid Storm).

I think we'll do that We had discussed this but with the 'in-built limit' it was deemed un-necessary. But now, it's a good idea. Thanks.

as a compromise, the date could be truncated to "Sep 10" ~ don't think we need to go past Month/Year.
the version should/could be the OXP version instead, that'd make it easy to spot it if was higher than the version you had, and actually might negate the date column, freeing up space?
as for description, i'd say two lines max, any description longer than that get's truncated.

Killer Wolf wrote:

as a compromise, the date could be truncated to "Sep 10" ~ don't think we need to go past Month/Year.
the version should/could be the OXP version instead, that'd make it easy to spot it if was higher than the version you had, and actually might negate the date column, freeing up space?
as for description, i'd say two lines max, any description longer than that get's truncated.

Date - good idea - no need for day.

OXP version - fine. It does not negate need for the date column as for a newbie coming to the table the OXP version number doesn't mean anything.

2 lines at which screen resolution? Mike's Fantabulous OXP is about 3.5 lines at 1920, but about 6 at 1024. Character limit is not perfect either as the font is not fixed width. (That could be changed but don't know if people would like Courier New)

It will be down to the wiki police / rambler assassins. Volunteers?

To illustrate the problem with 'Maximum Characters' I have added two spoof entries to the Table on the Sandbox.
The first is 120 characters alternating lower-case i's and spaces, the second is 120 characters alternating Upper-case M's and spaces.
The difference is striking! Having said that, the Ms, while running into two lines, still leave room to spare when viewed on a small screen, so I think 125-130 characters would be about right. Maybe even up to 150, but I'd need to check that.
Either way, I am happy that this is the best solution.

I tried Courier New in my Sandbox copy here (which I use due to wiki p/w problem):
http://oxps.wikkii.com/wiki/Sandbox#Proposed_OXP_table

What do you think?

Not sure...the characters look a bit 'thin' and don't forget we're all getting on a bit now, the old eyes aren't as good as they were.

"OXP version - fine. It does not negate need for the date column as for a newbie coming to the table the OXP version number doesn't mean anything."

i'd say it does : a newbie only needs to download the OXP therefore the date and the version are an elephant ~ the version number doesn't NEED to mean anything if they don't have aversion installed already. for an existing user w/ the OXP, they need only to know the version, to see if it's a later one than is in their AddOns.

mcarans wrote:

I tried Courier New in my Sandbox copy here (which I use due to wiki p/w problem):
http://oxps.wikkii.com/wiki/Sandbox#Proposed_OXP_table

What do you think?

Apart from it being ugly it's considerably wider than the current font. (For instance, at my current resolution, the courier table wraps between the "and a" in the Aegidian's Specials entry. The other table doesn't wrap at all; all characters fit into one line. That makes about 25% more space needed for the courier font than for the other one.) So it makes the problem actually worse.

Smivs wrote:

Not sure...the characters look a bit 'thin' and don't forget we're all getting on a bit now, the old eyes aren't as good as they were.

How about now? I made it more bold.
http://oxps.wikkii.com/wiki/Sandbox#Proposed_OXP_table

Killer Wolf wrote:

the date and the version are an elephant ~ the version number doesn't NEED to mean anything if they don't have aversion installed already. for an existing user w/ the OXP, they need only to know the version, to see if it's a later one than is in their AddOns.

maik gave the example usage that since he last updated his OXPs say 3 months ago, he wants to see which OXPs have had new releases.

newbies too will want to know which OXPs are current and which are old.