I've finally gotten around to drawing up the uploading guidelines for submitting files to the various product archives. These guidelines will appear right on the window that appears when people click on the "Submit a file" button.

I'd appreciate if you'd give them the once-over, to check for accuracy and completeness. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/upload.html")http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/upload.html(/url)

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

Yes, one mistake, seems to me: I believe "apostrophe's" shouldn't have an apostrophe, since it's plural; it should be "apostrophes". This has been confirmed by my mom, who's an English teacher.

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Brooklyn. Where the weak are killed and eaten.

AIM: obormot345

Quote

Originally posted by Obormot:
**Yes, one mistake, seems to me: I believe "apostrophe's" shouldn't have an apostrophe, since it's plural; it should be "apostrophes". This has been confirmed by my mom, who's an English teacher.

**

Welp, can't argue with mom! Fixed it.

Do you think each product should have it's own special tagline below all of that? For instance, we might say something about not uploading cheater plugs (there are just far too many of them) on the EV/EVO upload dialog.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

I agree, say no cheat plugs, and suggest that plugs should be a neat addition to the game, balanced if it ads weapons or missons or game play stuff, cool if its just a new interface or new graphics for old ships.

Add 'may' into "Keep in mind that thousands of people will be downloading and using the files you submit here." so that its 'thousands of people may be downloading..." so you can lead into the fact that quality gets more attention.

And for the script, when I d/l plugs, sometimes they decompress, and sometimes they don't. This is because they are all titled "dl-redirect.pl" if the script gave the name of the plug in, it would also keep the .hqx and .bin so it can be decompressed correctly.

The script should also delete extraneous characters such as spaces, and stuff, unless your server allows spaces. If its case sensitive, make all leters lowercase. And require a .hqx or .bin suffix on all files.

Chamrin

Quote

Originally posted by Chamrin:
**
And for the script, when I d/l plugs, sometimes they decompress, and sometimes they don't. This is because they are all titled "dl-redirect.pl" if the script gave the name of the plug in, it would also keep the .hqx and .bin so it can be decompressed correctly.
**

Files that do this were not Macbinary or Binhex-formatted files (they were uploaded as plain binary). Thus the reason for specifying MacBinary or BinHex in step 3.

Quote

**
The script should also delete extraneous characters such as spaces, and stuff, unless your server allows spaces. If its case sensitive, make all leters lowercase. And require a .hqx or .bin suffix on all files.
**

Yes, it is supposed to be doing this -- the author of the script dropped the ball, which means I will (at some point) have to go in and make these changes myself. I am not planning to do them immediately.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

Quote

Originally posted by Chamrin:
**
The script should also delete extraneous characters such as spaces, and stuff, unless your server allows spaces. If its case sensitive, make all leters lowercase. And require a .hqx or .bin suffix on all files.

Chamrin**

I changed my mind -- hacked the script a little bit:

$name{'sentfile'} =~ s/(^a-zA-Z0-9.-_)//g;

In other words, it accepts only alphanumeric characters (a..z and 0..0) and .'s and -'s and _'s in file names.

This will at least fix the upload errors some people have been having when they uploaded files with funky names.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

I disagree about not allowing cheater plugs. I know that right now someone is looking for the lightning jump plug which he says is not on the webboard. I think people should be able to play the game as they wish, using cheater plugs or not. It's not as though they are playing against human opponents, so what's the harm. Also, most cheater plugs don't use up much space, anyway.

I really don't think having someone decide which plugs get uploaded is a good idea. There is just too much chance for abuse or mistakes. Maybe you can just suggest that people have a look to see if there is already a plug uploaded that does the same thing before the upload theirs?

As for encoding stuffed files before uploading them: I have Stuffit Deluxe, but I don't think the basic Stuffit/Dropstuff shareware allows encoding, does it? What should someone do who cannot encode (or maybe even stuff) a file?

Jude

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Quote

Originally posted by Jude:
**
As for encoding stuffed files before uploading them: I have Stuffit Deluxe, but I don't think the basic Stuffit/Dropstuff shareware allows encoding, does it? What should someone do who cannot encode (or maybe even stuff) a file?

Jude**

Use Compact Pro -- there's a link provided. I'm fairly sure there's a free version of Stuffit somewhere that will compress files as well as decompress them, though.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

Yeah, I know that these can compress files. What I am wondering is whether the freeware/shareware versions can excode files as BinXex or MacBinary. I know that Stuffit DELUXE can, because I own it, but it is not the freeware version. (in toher words, I am not worried about my ability to stuff and encode files, but of others who do not have the commercial version of the compressoin software.

BTW, once again, I think cheat plugs should be uploaded. Otherwise, why not delete the numerous plugs that just add one or two new missions or ships, or just make a minor change in the graphics? Cheating is not unethical when you are not cheating someone else, and it allows some people to get past the parts of the game that cause them problems and keep them from enjoying the parts they want to play.
Jude

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2 things, first I tried d/ling some .hqx files, that I binhexed myself, and they came back as the "dl-redirect.pl" so I inquired further, I opened up Netscape 4.6 and it worked fine there, so it seems the problem is only in Internet explorer, (I'm using 5). So is there a way to fix this?

As for the cheat plugs, maybe if we could add a new section, for all the cheat plugs and even the few programs that let you modify your pilot, such as Ace. This way people can make as many cheats as they want, and they don't get mixed up with the plugs that add to the game.

Also, a pop up menu to go to each section would be extremely helpful on the main plug page. It draws the users attention, and they see all the places they can go.

Oh, and since we kind of moved to the addons section in general, the red arrows next to each link, find a different picture for that because it looks a lot like the arrows in the Macos where you click to find a hidden list of stuff in that category. How about doubling it so its a diamond.

Chamrin

Quote

Originally posted by Chamrin:
**

As for the cheat plugs, maybe if we could add a new section, for all the cheat plugs and even the few programs that let you modify your pilot, such as Ace. This way people can make as many cheats as they want, and they don't get mixed up with the plugs that add to the game.

Also, a pop up menu to go to each section would be extremely helpful on the main plug page. It draws the users attention, and they see all the places they can go.

Chamrin**

These both sound like good ideas to me.
Jude

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Quote

Originally posted by Jude:
**Yeah, I know that these can compress files. What I am wondering is whether the freeware/shareware versions can excode files as BinXex or MacBinary. I know that Stuffit DELUXE can, because I own it, but it is not the freeware version. (in toher words, I am not worried about my ability to stuff and encode files, but of others who do not have the commercial version of the compressoin software.

Jude
**

Yes, but there are links to the programs "MacBinary" and "BinHex" in those instructions, which are free, and will do said encoding.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

Quote

Originally posted by Chamrin:
**2 things, first I tried d/ling some .hqx files, that I binhexed myself, and they came back as the "dl-redirect.pl" so I inquired further, I opened up Netscape 4.6 and it worked fine there, so it seems the problem is only in Internet explorer, (I'm using 5). So is there a way to fix this?
**

Yes. If the files are uploaded in MacBinary or BinHex format, this will not happen.

Quote

**As for the cheat plugs, maybe if we could add a new section, for all the cheat plugs and even the few programs that let you modify your pilot, such as Ace. This way people can make as many cheats as they want, and they don't get mixed up with the plugs that add to the game.
**

Seems reasonable -- who is going to sort through all of the plugins to determine which are cheats and which aren't?

Quote

**Also, a pop up menu to go to each section would be extremely helpful on the main plug page. It draws the users attention, and they see all the places they can go.

Oh, and since we kind of moved to the addons section in general, the red arrows next to each link, find a different picture for that because it looks a lot like the arrows in the Macos where you click to find a hidden list of stuff in that category. How about doubling it so its a diamond.
**

Sorry, not in the cards. I'm not looking for feature suggestions/changes to the add-on files scripts at the moment -- I'm trying to get what is there working well for everyone.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

Quote

Originally posted by andrew:
Yes. If the files are uploaded in MacBinary or BinHex format, this will not happen.

The file Was BinHexed, and it worked fine on Netscape, it doesn't work fine on Internet Explorer is my point. I uploaded the file myself, and made sure it was binhexed.

Internet Explorer does not seem to get the right name for the file it d/ls, and the only way to recognize it needs decompressing is if it has the .hqx suffix at the end, but the name is changed, so it doesn't decompress it.

Chamrin

Quote

Originally posted by Chamrin:
**The file Was BinHexed, and it worked fine on Netscape, it doesn't work fine on Internet Explorer is my point. I uploaded the file myself, and made sure it was binhexed.

Internet Explorer does not seem to get the right name for the file it d/ls, and the only way to recognize it needs decompressing is if it has the .hqx suffix at the end, but the name is changed, so it doesn't decompress it.

Chamrin**

Weird -- I've never seen that happen with IE downloading MacBinary-format files. Perhaps that should be the preferred format, since this is an issue with the browser and/or its configuration. I will look into it, but I'm doubtful there is much I can do on my end unless there is a mistake in our scripts.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

DropStuff can definitely BinHex files. It doesn't do MacBinary, though, but I think Stuffit Lite (also shareware) can do that - not sure.

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Brooklyn. Where the weak are killed and eaten.

AIM: obormot345

The file upload instructions are now "live" -- they describe what people need to do to get their plugins/files submitted and available in our archives.

When you click on the "Submit File" button in the archives, the window that pops up now has the instructions at the top of it, so people HAVE to read them (or consciously ignore them) before they can scroll down to enter the information about the file they want to upload.

Hopefully this will help out getting the files people upload available quickly.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

This is a minor script change I'm requesting, when you upload a plug, it seems that it uploads it first, then checks the length of the description, and so I'm suggesting you switch it around so it tests the length of the description first, then if its ok, it starts uploading.

Also you might want to say something about that in the guidlines part, right above the description box.

Chamrin

Quote

Originally posted by Chamrin:
**This is a minor script change I'm requesting, when you upload a plug, it seems that it uploads it first, then checks the length of the description, and so I'm suggesting you switch it around so it tests the length of the description first, then if its ok, it starts uploading.

Chamrin**

I don't think you understand -- it isn't a minor scripting change. I'm perfectly willing to let you try to change it, if you like -- but it just doesn't work that way.

It is possible to add a JavaScript filter to the text fields, though, which would solve your problem -- I will do that at some point.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

Quote

Originally posted by Chamrin:
**
As for the cheat plugs, maybe if we could add a new section, for all the cheat plugs and even the few programs that let you modify your pilot, such as Ace. This way people can make as many cheats as they want, and they don't get mixed up with the plugs that add to the game.

Chamrin**

I've created a "cheats" file category in both the EV and EVO file archive areas, at Chamrin's and Jude's suggestion. The rational is to weed the "chaff" of the proliferating cheat plugins from the rest of the game expanding/replacing plugins. Check out the new "cheats" category at:

EV: (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/games/ev/addons.html")http://www.AmbrosiaS.../ev/addons.html(/url)
EVO: (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/games/evo/addons.html")http://www.AmbrosiaS...evo/addons.html(/url)

I tried to move all of the obvious cheater plugs for each game into the "cheats" category, but I probably missed some -- hopefully the admins will assist me in getting all of these files in their proper place.

All of the files in the EVO archives seem to have good descriptions for them; we're still coming up rather short in the EV archives, so any help getting any files without descriptions named would be appreciated.

Similarly, if there are any duplicate files or files that are corrupted, please let us know so we can delete them.

I also made a few other minor tweaks to the display script to make the pages easier to read -- enjoy.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.