Oolite Bulletins

This forum has a long history of thread derailment, RGVV. Be thankful there are no jelly babies!

Ah! Thread hijacking is a feature and not a bug here - I see.

Doesn't the Mac Notebook work all right? What is the advantage of Textastic? And have you yet managed to rezip any of your tweaked OXZ's?

I had Textastic laying around here, didn't try Mac Notebook, also because I thought it might save hidden characters too, like Windows Notepad does. Yes, I've managed to rezip the tweaked OXZ's, just for test purposes. Textastic shows tab indents, for example, and allows you to keep multiple files open in tabs, which is very convenient.

I'm trying to figure out how to make a start-up expansion pack with the Copperhead Mk. II and 1,000 credits at Lave station. Have been busy this afternoon with reading the Elite Wiki on how to compile expansion packs in general. I maybe unique that I'm somebody who first RTFM.

Not sure about the Mac Version of Notepad, but the first rule of OXPing on a PC is Thou Shalt Not Use Notpad.

The windows version of Note Pad completley mangels the file format and often means Oolite won't read a file saved in notepad.

Anything where you have the option to turn on line numbers and see the code in Java format (this makes it way easier to read) should be fine though.

The "Mac version" of Windows Notepad is actually TextEdit, not "Notebook". As far as I'm aware it does not mangle file formats though, so in that sense I would not call it a Mac version of Windows Notepad

LittleBear wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 5:49 pm

Not sure about the Mac Version of Notepad, but the first rule of OXPing on a PC is Thou Shalt Not Use Notepad.

The windows version of Note Pad completely mangles the file format and often means Oolite won't read a file saved in notepad.

Anything where you have the option to turn on line numbers and see the code in Java format (this makes it way easier to read) should be fine though.

As Maik noted, I've used the Macintosh's TextEdit to tweak a handful of .oxp's without any side-effects (so far!). But no line numbers or any other flourishes. I did have a hunt around to find something a bit more baroque, but failed dismally. I'll have to have a peek at yours!

NB: these are the hijacking jellybabies, if you want a laugh...

Edited to add: TextEdit does smuggle in invisible code. See Stranger's post below for solutions.

Textastic has line numbers too.

In case you are interested in a free alternative: Visual Studio Code is available for MacOS, and surprisingly (it is from Microsoft, no less) small and fast as well.

Xcode comes with all sorts of bells and whistles for editing .plists, and is free on the Apple app store.

TextEdit has two output formats - RTF (by default) and plain text. Switch to plain text to edit code - it will be new default settings for all files opened by TextEdit. Plain text has no any hidden characters and safe to modify code. TextEdit is a good simple general-purpose editor, but it has no line numbers and color-coding.
I'm using Dashcode to maintain my projects. It has line numbers and color coding. Dashcode was developed to create dashboard widgets and web applications, but it is pretty fine to edit JavaScript and property lists. Maybe it lacks functionality to develop and manage large integrated projects, but it is fine for me. And it is free.
There are also other free code editors for Mac, like Brackets. You don't need AppleID to get Brackets. It has line numbers and color coding too.
Sometimes I'm also using PlistEdit Pro to convert tabulated text onto plist format.
Old, but still essential utility - ZipCleaner. It removes Mac resource files from packed archives. Use it to prepare to upload OXZs from Mac.
The last, but not the least - I have both Oolite versions, game and development. You can safely run both versions from one drive - it will share Managed AddOns folder, but has unique AddOns folders. Development versions has very useful debugging tools. Place your experimental packages onto AddOns folder of Oolite development version, test and edit it without any harm for your game (you just need separate save files to test your wild ideas).

maik wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 6:26 pm

In case you are interested in a free alternative: Visual Studio Code is available for MacOS, and surprisingly (it is from Microsoft, no less) small and fast as well.

Just stumbled across this one (don't understand how I failed to notice it here). It seems to have syntax editors for javascript & .plists (optional)

Can anybody tell me anything about it (especially since Maik currently seems to reside in the oesophagal tube of the Witchspace Lobster...)? It also seems to be available for Windows & Unix.

I've found that the current Script Editor which came with my AppleMac is not terribly useful. SubEthaEdit is better, but the syntax correction is somewhat ckronquey. And, without an e-mail, most of the others seem unobtainable.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Wed May 11, 2022 5:39 pm

Can anybody tell me anything about it (especially since Maik currently seems to reside in the oesophagal tube of the Witchspace Lobster...)? It also seems to be available for Windows & Unix.

Visual Studio Code is the editor I use for OXP and core Oolite development. I find it extremely useful and functional but also very lightweight. In my setup, I've added some automation scripts to some keyboard shortcuts that help with the process of working on multiple versions of Oolite. And for clarity, I'm on Windows.

It's probably worth adding that I don't edit OXZ files directly - I unzip them to an OXP folder before doing anything to them, and I do that manually. I haven't yet put a script together for auto-OXZ-ifying an OXP, but it would probably be possible. Because I have a back-catalog of both formats (OXZ and an zipped OXP) that need slightly different processes, I've found it simpler to do it manually as well.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Wed May 11, 2022 5:39 pm

Can anybody tell me anything about it (especially since Maik currently seems to reside in the oesophagal tube of the Witchspace Lobster...)? It also seems to be available for Windows & Unix.

Totally agreed with phkb, this editor is pretty useful for Oolite tweaking. Furthermore, several expansions are available to make your life easier. Same as phkb I unzip all packages first before modifying them.