I have found a known bug , but with a twist!

Every once and a while , say every few weeks or so (note that i use MC a lot), MissionComputer will start giving me these error messages: (note: this has happened to me more than once)

(MissionComputer has encountered a nil object error in the App:xPrefsRead routine that prevents it from running.) {OK}click

(MissionComputer has encountered a nil object error in the App:xPrefsRead routine that prevents it from running. An additional error was encountered while trying to display this message.) {OK}click

(MissionComputer has encountered a unidentifiable error in the App:Open routine that prevents it from running.) {OK}click

(MissionComputer has encountered a unidentifiable error in the App:Open routine that prevents it from running. An additional error was encountered while trying to display this message.) {OK}click

and after that it quits , the weird thing is , dumping my preference file doesn't help , but deleting MC and recopying it from the .dmg file will make it work just fine.

On a side note , i have 2 versions of MC (4.0.4 and 4.0.3) and if one of them stops working(as stated above) the other one still works fine.

Oh yeah , i'm running MAC OS 10.4.11 on a G4 if thats any help.

This post has been edited by Grenth : 02 June 2009 - 04:03 PM

Only 4.0.4 is affected by this known bug – I suspect the two versions are conflicting with each other by placing contradictory information in the preferences file. I can't see any possible way that deleting and replacing MissionComputer could have any effect, since the application file is never modified.

I really ought to get the next update out...

QUOTE (IT 000 @ Apr 18 2009, 06:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It only doesn't work for the govt that once had the 'disable request assistance' button, all others work fine.

IT 000: I have examined the files you gave me, and can now confirm that neither government has the 'Disable request assistance' flag checked. I don't have time to test it further, but I can think of two possible causes:

1. In another plug-in or data file, there's an older copy of the 'Ruffians' government that still has the flag set, and is overriding the copy you gave me.

2. Something else in the government is causing this behaviour. I notice that the 'Ruffians' government is both xenophobic and set to always attack the player – does anyone know offhand whether this combination of flags could produce the effect described?

What's the recommended way to get images into MC? For now I just tell Photoshop to save them as pict resources and open them as if they're plugins, but there has to be a better way.

Something like drag-and-drop would be awesome.

Copy and Paste?
At least that is how I do it.

This post has been edited by Sp3cies : 04 June 2009 - 04:26 PM

To add pictures in MissionComputer, just create a new PICT resource. Then, you can paste a picture from the clipboard, or use the Import from File button. (The importer isn't especially sophisticated, though, so you may get better results with the Photoshop process you've been using, or by running them through BlitZen.)

Feature suggestion: It may seem trivial, but it would be useful to be able to ask MC to toggle all quotes in a plug-in to "smart quotes" or "dumb quotes". Right now I've got a slightly annoying mix of the two in EV Firefly, and it would be nice if there were a simple way to try both out and see which I liked better.

QUOTE (Lindley @ Jun 7 2009, 04:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Feature suggestion: It may seem trivial, but it would be useful to be able to ask MC to toggle all quotes in a plug-in to "smart quotes" or "dumb quotes". Right now I've got a slightly annoying mix of the two in EV Firefly, and it would be nice if there were a simple way to try both out and see which I liked better.

Copy-paste into MS Word or equiv. Turn on smart quotes. Make sure it updates existing dumb quotes. Find-replace all opening smart-quotes with {b420 "<opening smart-quote>" "<dumb quote>"}. Find-replace all closing smart-quotes with {b420 "<closing smart-quote>" "<dumb quote>"}.

NCB 420 is now your "smart-quote bit". Use an outfit or mission to toggle it in-game. Decide which you like. Since you still have MS Word open, find-replace to put the quotes the way you want them.

This post has been edited by Qaanol : 07 June 2009 - 05:57 PM

Won't work for any quotes inside a {} already.

Can you really open a plug-in in a text editor? Hmm. TextEdit doesn't seem to work.

This post has been edited by Lindley : 07 June 2009 - 06:03 PM

You don't need to change all of them. Just change one dësc so you can see two version of it with different quotation marks, and make your pick. If you want to open a plug-in in a text editor, use ConText.

QUOTE (Lindley @ Jun 7 2009, 04:02 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Can you really open a plug-in in a text editor? Hmm. TextEdit doesn't seem to work.

It would probably be easier to copy-paste from the dësc into the editor.

This post has been edited by Jalisurr : 07 June 2009 - 07:03 PM

QUOTE (Jalisurr @ Jun 8 2009, 01:02 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It would probably be easier to copy-paste from the dësc into the editor.

Yeah. If you want to do each desc individually. Which I don't. That's the entire point.

QUOTE (Lindley @ Jun 7 2009, 04:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Feature suggestion: It may seem trivial, but it would be useful to be able to ask MC to toggle all quotes in a plug-in to "smart quotes" or "dumb quotes".

Not likely to happen, I'm afraid. The algorithm for generating correct ‘smart quotes’ is much more complicated than you’d think, and changing them in already-existing resources wouldn’t fit MissionComputer’s paradigm.

(The trick is to get into the habit of always typing Option-(, Option-Shift-(, Option-), and Option-Shift-) as appropriate, rather than using the quote-mark key in the first place. I’ve been doing this since the days of HyperCard; this was actually easier than embedding straight quotes in a string, for which you had to say things like answer "He said," && quote & "Hi!" & quote && "but I was listening to someone else.")

QUOTE (Lindley @ Jun 7 2009, 07:02 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Can you really open a plug-in in a text editor? Hmm. TextEdit doesn't seem to work.

No. Plug-in content is stored in the resource fork, while text editors work with the data fork. As far as they’re concerned, a plug-in is an empty file, and they’ll either ignore or even overwrite its contents.

.rez plug-ins do store their resources in the data fork, but not in a human-readable fashion. The only way to achieve what you’re thinking of is with w00tWare's ConText utility, which converts resources into human-readable text, which can be edited and then converted back using ResStore.

(quote name='David Arthur' date='Jan 3 2009, 02:45 PM' post='1959894')
Hmm, that’s odd – I wonder where that went? I haven’t touched the crön editor in ages. Anyway, fixed, thanks.

I know you reported having fixed the "can't set a 'before starting' delay for cröns" problem back in January, but I'm still finding it even in fresh downloads from http://davidarthur.evula.net/mc/MissionCom...Anniversary.dmg ; even with all new "empty" Mac plugs, and old prefs files deleted.

No such problem with v3.3.3.

You're kidding me? That could explain why some of my descs are going haywire in CTC-C...

It is fixed, but the version with it fixed has not been released yet. For now, you'll have to use v3.3.3 to edit starting delay.

I was waiting for proper access to the add-ons directory to be restored before releasing the next version, but since that doesn't look like happening any time soon, I'm now planning to release the update sometime within the next few days. It won't be the most exciting new version MissionComputer has ever received, but it takes in all of the fixedthankses since the 7th Anniversary Edition, as well as one or two small new features for which people have asked.

I have been doing a bunch of system editing recently and I was wondering how easy it would be to make MC remember whether the "planet" or the "system attributes" window was open previously and open it to that one when you click on the next system?

This post has been edited by Sp3cies : 29 July 2009 - 06:28 AM

I didn't know MC 4.0.4 came with an update notifier, first off.

I was trying to download 4.0.5 after reading the message, but your site said the link was broken, DA. Did you say something about this update before?

Yeh, I got the same deal as King.