OK, so I've used MissionComputer for Windows and here's what I think.

It's a far easier to understand editor than EVNEW but I think it's incomplete enough to not be always better.

If you just want to view ships, there is no possiblity of viewing the most interesting part: the ship description.

For example, the IDA Frigate is shown as having no description (!). Except the IDA Frigate does have one, I've viewed it.

The same continues with the weapon list. The name field just says not found even if the ships came with Nova itself. That means I have to open Nova Data 4 and find the weapon name based on the ID.

Same goes for outfits, they will also say not found in the name field.

You can't view the description of outfits, even if it does exist. The Hellhound Missile does have a description, you just can't view it. The description is blank, if you press edit description.

This means I don't know if you can actually use MissionComputer for Windows Alpha 1 to actually make outfits (because they need descriptions) or ships (they also need descriptions). You can probably just type in the field where you can make a description, but why can't I view description that exist? Even descriptions that come with the game? For example, the description of the Mod Starbridge? Does MissionComputer keep descriptions I've already typed?

Can I use MissionComputer to make a system change government? Well, it seems the NCB features work fully though.

MissionComputer is a wonderful editor. It's much easier to understand than EVNEW. However, the high standard means I want MissionComputer to work more fully than I care about EVNEW working. I want at least the most interesting features to work. I would like- if this is possible- all select field graphically buttons to work. Many of those, when pressed, just give you a blank box with nothing inside. You can select - and choose that, but nothing happens. It seems specifically all select field graphically ones, except the fields that are for NCBs. The ship resources field where it lists the weapons a ship has has a button that you can't even press. Again, I can only wonder what I could see if the button worked- and I actually got to see the graphical editor for a ships weapons.

The Cron editor has a find resource feature which lets me select resources but which does nothing when I do select a resource. I mean the NCB test field, when you press the magnifying glass. I can only wonder if the feature is good.

The oöps resource, pers resource and junk resource can't be opened at all. I get a error message. The pers resource is important enough to be able to view and edit. Every plug-in I've ever played has perses. Why can't we view these resources, the pers one being the most interesting? Bööms and röids can be viewed for some reason, even if I consider these far more uninteresting.

I want a new version, and I want the following things to be added to it: a ability to view and edit ship descriptions, a ability to view and edit descriptions of outfits, the ability to see the name of a weapon in the field which shows which weapons a ship has, the ability to view the names of outfits which a ship comes with in the field which shows outfits a ship has, and a ability to use the graphical editor (magnifying glass) next to the field that lists what weapons a ship has. That's the very minimum needed to make MissionComputer work at all in editing plug-ins, and fully in viewing plug-ins.

I would like if all select the value for this field graphically (magnifying glass) buttons worked, meaning you get a editor that works fully when you press those. The cron editors find resource feature working would perhaps be good, even if I never use crons.

When can we have a new version of the Windows version?

The editors that work on Windows got that way as a side-effect of Macintosh development. There’s next to no Windows-specific code, and so the editors that would require extra work are simply nonfunctional, as it says in the documentation. The pop-up Resource Selector dialogue box, in particular, would need to be completely rewritten before it was of any use on Windows.

As for the dësc issue, have you checked whether the descriptions actually exist in the file you’re editing? The IDA Frigate may have a description, but if it’s in a different file, MissionComputer has no way to know it’s there.

Will we get a new version for Windows? And when will we get a new one?

You wrote here yourself you want to release a new version. You wrote this in reply to EVWeb who asked How goes the Windows version?: "It’s improved a bit, notably gaining support for all the resource editors that can practically be implemented without substantial structural work. Sometime I ought to package a new version, as it’s unlikely to progress significantly beyond its current state."

http://www.ambrosias...dpost&p=2105266 that's the link to the post you made.

Why would MissionComputer not progress beyond what it is now?

Also, does all resource editors that can be practically implemented mean we can edit oops, pers and junk resources?

Will we ever get the feature of being able to click the magnifying glass buttons and then actually getting a editor?

I opened Nova Data 1, and it does not have any desc resources. I didn't know MissionComputer worked like this. Well, how do I edit ship descriptions then if I make my own ship for sale with a description for it? Do I just need to make sure a desc resource is in the same plug-in as the ship resource? Anything else I need to know? Meaning, EVNEW gives me a list of the resource IDs a ship has. For example, the Shipyard Desc ID is 13011 for Enterprise. Do I need to know them in MissionComputer? If I do, MissionComputer must tell me them. It's impossible to figure out them without the IDs being shown. It seems though, making desc is as easy as clicking the Edit description button and then writing the description. Is this right? I want to make a description that actually shows up for the ship in the Shipyard.

Also: one bug. Once when I attempted to copy text from a desc with Ctrl- C, the whole description was lost. I had to press Ctrl- Z to get the resource back. I tried now to copy twice, and it works normally. Even EVNEW supports copying (and it's unfinished). Copying in EVNEW will never result in losing the text.

There is also a feature I would really like to see: the ability to search descs. The ability to search now is limited to being able to search for words that appear under Resource Name in the desc resource. The feature I would like to have would allow me to search the whole file - meaning for any word. Not just for words that appear under Resource Name. That means I could search for anything I remember, and the program would give me results. However, the way I have wanted it means the search results would have to open a new window. I think. You can tell me if it's not needed. This means you would have to change the Find feature.

@general-cade-smart, on 26 June 2013 - 12:27 PM, said in A new version of Mission Computer for Windows:

Why would MissionComputer not progress beyond what it is now?

MissionComputer is no longer in development in any meaningful sense. MissionComputer’s overall code base is now nearly twelve years old, and even the massive renovation in version 4.0 was six years ago. To bring MissionComputer back up to date would require a similar scale of effort. Now that the game itself is so old, and the Ambrosia community is winding down, that sort of investment simply isn’t justified.

@general-cade-smart, on 26 June 2013 - 12:27 PM, said in A new version of Mission Computer for Windows:

Do I just need to make sure a desc resource is in the same plug-in as the ship resource? . . . It seems though, making desc is as easy as clicking the Edit description button and then writing the description. Is this right? I want to make a description that actually shows up for the ship in the Shipyard.

That’s the idea. Clicking on the edit button opens the appropriate dësc resource, creating it if it doesn’t already exist.

The dësc can, of course, be in any file you like, but MissionComputer won’t know about it unless it’s in the same file as the shïp resource.

@general-cade-smart, on 26 June 2013 - 12:27 PM, said in A new version of Mission Computer for Windows:

The feature I would like to have would allow me to search the whole file - meaning for any word.

This is exactly the sort of thing I’d like to do if I were seriously expanding the programme, but which would require significant renovations to make it possible. Likewise for the sort of stability issues you’ve noticed with copying and pasting, especially on Windows.