I just fixed a bug that occurs only when handling plug-ins for the first two games, and only on Mac OS 10.6. And as Mac OS 10.6 cannot run either of the first two games, I suspect I may be the only person who would ever have observed this bug.

@david-arthur, on 21 March 2011 - 05:40 PM, said in MissionComputer: The Saga Continues:

I just fixed a bug that occurs only when handling plug-ins for the first two games, and only on Mac OS 10.6. And as Mac OS 10.6 cannot run either of the first two games, I suspect I may be the only person who would ever have observed this bug.

I’m intrigued what this was. I’m on 10.6 and I use MC to open and look at the EVC and EVO data files fairly frequently. I don’t often edit plug-ins for those games anymore, but I can run them under SheepShaver. I have not noticed any bugs.

This post has been edited by Qaanol : 21 March 2011 - 05:46 PM

Display problems when invoking the Resource Selector from the original mïsn editor. I didn’t test further, but the cause was the same as was making the document window crash after a sheet had been open (again only on 10.6) a while ago, so it could potentially have had similar effects.

post deleted

This post has been edited by Coraxus : 23 March 2011 - 04:40 PM

It’s been a while since I’ve shared any updates, so I thought I’d show you the latest progress on MissionComputer for Windows:
missioncomputer-windows.png (13.85K)
Number of downloads: 38

If you’re not already familiar with the interface, this is what it looks like on the Macintosh:
missioncomputer-macintosh.png (40.98K)
Number of downloads: 35

I plan to have further information available soon.

@david-arthur, on 01 April 2011 - 10:42 AM, said in MissionComputer: The Saga Continues:

It’s been a while since I’ve shared any updates, so I thought I’d show you the latest progress on MissionComputer for Windows:
missioncomputer-windows.png

If you’re not already familiar with the interface, this is what it looks like on the Macintosh:
missioncomputer-macintosh.png

I plan to have further information available soon.

Glad to hear you're still working on it.

Lovin' the old school, DA. StarSword, might want to check the date.

Does this mean MC4 runs on Mac OS 9 now?!?!? Sweet!

@david-arthur, on 01 April 2011 - 10:42 AM, said in MissionComputer: The Saga Continues:

It’s been a while since I’ve shared any updates, so I thought I’d show you the latest progress on MissionComputer for Windows:
missioncomputer-windows.png

If you’re not already familiar with the interface, this is what it looks like on the Macintosh:
missioncomputer-macintosh.png

I plan to have further information available soon.

I expect once all the bugs get worked out and feature parity is achieved, this should get released in exactly one year.

Dang, it looks like it can even run on the old 68k.

It’s been a while since I’ve shared any updates, so I thought I’d show you the latest progress on MissionComputer for Windows:
missioncomputer-windowsxp.png (324.67K)
Number of downloads: 29

If you’re not already familiar with the interface, this is what it looks like on the Macintosh:
missioncomputer-macosx.png (129.33K)
Number of downloads: 28

I plan to have further information available soon.

Now, it's April 2nd... so if this is still part of an April Fool's joke, I will be very sad. But, I am very excited about the possibilities.

Aha, I think we've been fooled.

@jacabyte, on 08 April 2011 - 05:00 PM, said in MissionComputer: The Saga Continues:

Aha, I think we've been fooled.

Gods, I hope not. I'm getting tired of the rollercoaster (and of EVNEW, more to the point).

Sorry for the delay — I was experiencing some problems with my FTP service, but they seem to be resolved now.

I've now posted a working-ish, extremely alpha, version of MissionComputer for Windows for your exploration. I'm calling it a 'developer preview': it's been tested lightly on Windows XP, and not at all on anything else, but it seems to be able to open, edit, and save files without failing. Numerous features are incomplete or nonfunctional, however, and there are various unanswered questions regarding both design and functionality.

This has been building for some time now, as I've been careful over the years to flag out Macintosh-specific code, and various modules that I've developed for other reasons have had the side-effect of eliminating one or another of the obstacles to running on Windows. I can't guarantee that this will ever be a complete, polished application comparable to the Macintosh version, or even that it will go any further, but take a look at it and see if it has the potential to be of use to you.

Quote

MISSIONCOMPUTER FOR WINDOWS 'DUESSA' IS EARLY ALPHA DEVELOPER PREVIEW SOFTWARE. IT IS INCOMPLETE, UNTESTED, AND LIKELY UNSTABLE. IT IS TO BE USED ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Windows Alpha 1 has the following substantive limitations and known issues:

• Only the EV Nova .rez format is supported on Windows. This will not (and for all practical purposes cannot) change.

• Numerous editors are non-functional. In some cases this is simply because I haven't converted them yet; in others there are unresolved bugs that prevent them from functioning, or even unanswered questions about how or whether they can work on Windows. In every case MissionComputer should still be able to copy and paste the resources from the document window.

• Neither PICTs, cicns, nor snds can be opened or viewed anywhere in MissionComputer.

• The Resource Selector window invoked by the magnifying-glass next to every resource-ID field does not support the .rez format, and is therefore currently useless on Windows. The Resource Copier is likewise nonfunctional.

• The Check for Updates feature is unavailable, as is the help system.

Finally, a design point on which I'm interested in your feedback. Because of the multi-tiered nature of a resource file, it is impossible for me to adopt the 'SDI' single-window interface that is most common in Windows applications. Even on the Macintosh, MissionComputer's interface is somewhat unusual, and my fear is that as Windows lacks the Macintosh's ability to treat each application as a layer, it may become confusing when the main document window and its child resource windows all occupy the same layer as every other open window on the system.

The only alternative that I can see is to make MissionComputer run as an MDI window, which would contain the document window and all resource editors. Would this make it more useable for you, or is the inherent inelegance of MDI's 'windows within windows' a worse problem in itself?

http://davidarthur.e...ComputerWA1.zip (4.8 MB)

Dunno about MDI and whatnot (I'm not your caliber of programmer; basic C++, Visual Basic, and LabVIEW are about my limit), but let's take a look.

I see you have a picture-based INTF editor. That's way better than what I had on EVNEW. I just had the resource options; no way to tell what they would end up looking like.

The additional reference code (you put a resource number into the SHIP outfit or weapon field and get the name of the resource, not just its number) makes it way easier to use than EVNEW. And I'm already liking the government class relationships thingie; makes it plain and simple to read what effect changing the alignments will have. (I already discovered one error in EVN:UGF that way.)

First problem I found: you encoded the same keyboard shortcut, Control-S for both Save and Save As. I'd change Save As to Control-Shift-S.

David Arthur said:

The only alternative that I can see is to make MissionComputer run as an MDI window, which would contain the document window and all resource editors. Would this make it more useable for you, or is the inherent inelegance of MDI's 'windows within windows' a worse problem in itself?

The visuals are great, actually. EVNEW uses the same type of tiered browser, making it easier for a soon-to-be-former EVNEW user (I don't think anyone's going to go back :D) to select resources to work on.

Overall, DA, a great start. Apart from the mis-assigned keyboard shortcut, I didn't run across any bugs in the short time I was using it. (I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium x64, on an Intel i5 quad-core and 4GB RAM, just for reference.) Can't wait for the final version, and I'll be happy to beta-test anything you need tested.

As for the help files, I did a quick Google search and found this.

@starsword, on 08 April 2011 - 06:20 PM, said in MissionComputer: The Saga Continues:

. . . you encoded the same keyboard shortcut, Control-S for both Save and Save As. I'd change Save As to Control-Shift-S.

Fixed, thanks. On the Macintosh, that command is called 'Save As (Windows)' and its shortcut is Command-Option-S, but of course there's no Option key on Windows.

I'm not particularly worried about the document window itself — I've been using basically the same browser interface since 2003 and am reasonably pleased with it, although recently some have suggested a hierarchical version more like ResEdit, so that you can see the list of more than one type at once. The area I'm not so sure about on Windows is the way in which every resource opens in a separate window, which is what got me thinking about MDI.

@david-arthur, on 08 April 2011 - 06:29 PM, said in MissionComputer: The Saga Continues:

The area I'm not so sure about on Windows is the way in which every resource opens in a separate window, which is what got me thinking about MDI.

Nah, EVNEW does the same thing, only I can't Alt-Tab between simultaneously opened resources.

I am squealing like a little schoolgirl. I love it.

I would really like a PICT viewer or at least an import/export editor, but so far, everything seems to be working quite well for me. I've never really had a need to edit things like the cicn. I can still use EVNEW for snd resources (although, they never really did translate over to the Mac plug-ins in conversion.) Would the source code for EVNEW help you with a Windows PICT editor or viewer?