Author Topic: Beta 232.01  (Read 3672 times)

Offline Wisp

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Beta 232.01
« on: October 09, 2013, 01:10:06 PM »
Beta location

Changes:
  * HANDLE_AUDIO and HANDLE_TILESETS (mostly) handle special characters.
  * ADD_MUSIC does not set the wrong variable if the MUS already exists.
  * Document ADD_MUSIC.
  * Optimisations to DECOMPRESS_BIFF.
  * EXTEND_MOS uses the offset table.

Version 233 can be expected fairly soon, but I want to be reasonably sure there are no other bugs waiting to be found first (I don't particularly want to put out 234 next week). Say roughly a week for this beta, if everything goes well. The change to EXTEND_MOS affects the Widescreen mod (but is made for unrelated reasons). I have tested the Widescreen mod on all IE games and everything seems fine, but I'd appreciate confirmation.

aqrit

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Re: Beta 232.01
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2013, 09:28:38 PM »
Thank you for doing the EXTEND_MOS changes for me.
The changes to mos.ml don't look like they would break anything.
I see on line 41 it reads in the palette offset but then on lines 44,45,46 the palette offset is hard coded as 24 ( but I doubt that will effect anyone )

There are some "SHRINK_MOS" tp2 functions making use of the new EXTEND_MOS attached over here:
http://www.shsforums.net/topic/56475-drawing-transparent-menu-backgrounds-wip/#entry562136

Offline Silent

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Re: Beta 232.01
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2013, 04:04:10 AM »
Thanks, Wisp. And the same request as the previous version.
Can you update .exe file from this link: http://www.weidu.org/~thebigg/WeiDU.exe please? Or put it here: http://www.weidu.org/~thebigg/beta/WeiDU.exe ?

Offline Wisp

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Re: Beta 232.01
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2013, 04:22:36 AM »
Thanks, Wisp. And the same request as the previous version.
Can you update .exe file from this link: http://www.weidu.org/~thebigg/WeiDU.exe please? Or put it here: http://www.weidu.org/~thebigg/beta/WeiDU.exe ?
Done. Who are the stakeholders here? Do these people want this copy of WeiDU to be updated every time there's a new version, or just for new (supposedly) stable versions?

Edit: a Mac build is now also up, thanks to alnair of the BGEE boards.

Offline Silent

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Re: Beta 232.01
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2013, 04:49:22 AM »
Quote
Done. Who are the stakeholders here? Do these people want this copy of WeiDU to be updated every time there's a new version, or just for new (supposedly) stable versions?
Thanks. This is a link to BWS. Without it the program can not start BWP installation.

Offline The Imp

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Re: Beta 232.01
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2013, 07:42:07 PM »
Who are the stakeholders here? Do these people want this copy of WeiDU to be updated every time there's a new version, or just for new (supposedly) stable versions?
Hmm, how would I answer this... I would say that if a mod needs a new functionality from a weidu.exe, it should go to a beta. Now if it's a correction of a function that might explode if it's not done correctly, it should release a new version of the weidu.exe at the first sign of trouble...

The though is that the beta adds functions so they can be tried out, while the non-beta hones the already existing "stable" functions. This would hopefully stop the need to use the Beta versions in the BWS. And also the though here would be to encourage the mods that need the Weidu.exe beta to label their mods with the word "beta" in them. And if you could, I would suggest that you show more than 1 beta version in the index...

Or I could be totally off my meds and so forth...  ;D

Offline Wisp

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Re: Beta 232.01
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2013, 10:52:25 AM »
The though is that the beta adds functions so they can be tried out, while the non-beta hones the already existing "stable" functions. This would hopefully stop the need to use the Beta versions in the BWS.
So the suggestion is to have patch releases and feature releases, where at least the latter see beta releases and the former mainly serve to quickly correct regressions. I'll give some thought to possible, viable implementations. Meanwhile, if anyone else has opinions on the subject, either for or against, I'd like to hear them.

Offline Lollorian

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Re: Beta 232.01
« Reply #7 on: October 13, 2013, 04:17:50 AM »
Can the variable set by ADD_KIT be upsized into a LONG instead of a BYTE? :P

Theoretically wouldn't break anything that works currently but it would help remove the IDS_OF_SYMBOL() step in this. Is there a reason to restrict it to a BYTE? (other than the 255 kit restriction which ToBEx works around)

Offline Wisp

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Re: Beta 232.01
« Reply #8 on: October 13, 2013, 08:19:26 AM »
Can the variable set by ADD_KIT be upsized into a LONG instead of a BYTE? :P

Theoretically wouldn't break anything that works currently
How so? I gather you'd like ADD_KIT to return KIT = (0x4000 + X) instead of KIT = X. But that would break all mods that try to use KIT as a byte (like in the ADD_KIT tutorial) all the time, as opposed to just when ToBEx is installed (and X can be larger than 255).

However, writing ToBEx-enabled kit values can be streamlined quite a bit by adding 0x4000 to the return value from ADD_KIT and bit-twiddling the value into effectively being big-endian. E.g.:
Code: [Select]
// The variable %MyKit% evaluates to the return value from ADD_KIT
COPY_EXISTING some.cre override
  WRITE_LONG 0x244 (MyKit + 0x4000) << 16
BUT_ONLY
« Last Edit: October 13, 2013, 08:22:02 AM by Wisp »

Offline Lollorian

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Re: Beta 232.01
« Reply #9 on: October 13, 2013, 09:56:58 AM »
The documentation should probably mention that new kits added by ADD_KIT start from 0x4001 :P In my tests, I was trying to convert 0x12345678 into bigendian - didn't bother to check whether the added kits would even touch that kind of number.

But the request I had wasn't to return the entire LONG. What happens when ADD_KIT adds 0x4132? I thought it returns just the last BYTE so it would only return 0x32 instead of 0x132 - which is needed to make your code snippet work. Or does it not return a BYTE but the value of (x - 0x4000)?

To summarize, can the documentation be updated to mention how the kit numbers are assigned and what variables (and their types) are set when an ADD_KIT is executed please? :)

Offline Wisp

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Re: Beta 232.01
« Reply #10 on: October 13, 2013, 10:35:05 AM »
But the request I had wasn't to return the entire LONG. What happens when ADD_KIT adds 0x4132? I thought it returns just the last BYTE so it would only return 0x32 instead of 0x132 - which is needed to make your code snippet work. Or does it not return a BYTE but the value of (x - 0x4000)?
ADD_KIT writes the value K to KITLIST.2DA and the value L to KIT.IDS, where K and L are related as L = K + 0x4000. K is the return value of ADD_KIT and has the minimum value 32 on bogstandard ToB (BARBARIAN is number 31 in KITLIST.2DA). (All WeiDU integer variables are 32-bit, btw.)

Quote
To summarize, can the documentation be updated to mention how the kit numbers are assigned and what variables (and their types) are set when an ADD_KIT is executed please? :)
I can amend the documentation of ADD_KIT, yes.

Offline DavidW

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Re: Beta 232.01
« Reply #11 on: October 13, 2013, 03:52:54 PM »
The though is that the beta adds functions so they can be tried out, while the non-beta hones the already existing "stable" functions. This would hopefully stop the need to use the Beta versions in the BWS.
So the suggestion is to have patch releases and feature releases, where at least the latter see beta releases and the former mainly serve to quickly correct regressions. I'll give some thought to possible, viable implementations. Meanwhile, if anyone else has opinions on the subject, either for or against, I'd like to hear them.

Against, fairly strongly. WEIDU has run happily for several years on the assumption that there is exactly one version at any given time that is supposed to be used for installing mods, and that betas are there entirely for testing purposes and not for distribution. That's lapsed a little in the last year, but only because of bad timing - TheBigg stepped aside pretty much exactly as BGEE required the biggest shakeup of WEIDU in history. But I think there are major advantages, now we have a BGEE-friendly WEIDU, in returning to the normal mold - I think it's both more stable and less demanding on you as maintainer.

Offline Kulyok

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Re: Beta 232.01
« Reply #12 on: October 14, 2013, 12:52:18 AM »
I fully agree with DavidW's point here. (Like in the old anecdote about the programmer's son: "The Sun rises in the morning, each morning, are you sure?" - "Yes, Dad." - "Then, for God's sake, don't change anything!")

Offline GeN1e

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Re: Beta 232.01
« Reply #13 on: October 14, 2013, 10:02:20 AM »
If there's a bug in stable release, it should be fixed asap. Any WIP features in this case should be merged into the next v+1 beta and continue their usual testing run. Unless, of course, both the bug and the feature were located in one place - but I imagine that's not gonna happen every month, so any specific cases can be resolved depending on the current circumstances and needs.
« Last Edit: October 14, 2013, 10:05:53 AM by GeN1e »

Offline Turambar90

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Re: Beta 232.01
« Reply #14 on: October 15, 2013, 07:44:27 AM »
I think the problem with WeiDU lies in the version numbering: usually (for instance, so is done for Mozilla,  Linux kernels etc.), 232.01 is the first revision (patch) to 232.00, whereas betas are indicated as 233b1 etc. This makes it difficult to change version numbers in case a patch release is necessary... how about 23200.1 for patch releases? Otherwise, you could risk that a beta is "upgraded" to a version which actually, being a patch release, has many less features, and the process actually becomes a downgrade...

 

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