Looking for a BoT version (again...)

[wolph42]

Somehow dropbox FU my versions of the BoT and I lost the one with Nildiks room description macro (and fancy frames). Does anyone still have that BoT version and could you pls share the campaign if thats the case!!

Its very easy to recognize: its version 38 which shows up when you load the campaign

very greatful!l

[Full Bleed]

Says this is version 38a.

You might want to make better backups of your older editions.

Oops, can't attach it because it's too big... here it is on dropbox:

*removed
(don't want this to be a distribution thread)

[wolph42]

once more many thanks.

as for backing up. I (used to) trust dropbox to this for me. I've now submitted a ticket. The entire version history is not working currently. so it seems indeed I need to go back to an older backing up system. Its quite a hassle though as I make regular updates but always minor incremental and if db manages to 'loose' or 'revert' an entire version...?
Point is there is only one BoT campaign file (which is online and in which i work), so its *certain* that its a DB FU.

[Jagged]

Perhaps Git might be a better solution?

You would probably need to take your Library and explode the zip file before uploading it. But the extra effort might be worthwhile for the additional tracking you'd gain.

[wolph42]

Perhaps Git might be a better solution?

You would probably need to take your Library and explode the zip file before uploading it. But the extra effort might be worthwhile for the additional tracking you'd gain.

I think thats too much hassle. I guess copy paste occasionally of the rptok file is a simple and effective method.
I just merged the two version (I didn't expect so much change and was happy that I used winmerge).
edit: new version released.

@FB: when merging I came accross 'code checker' apparently from AM. Did you add that, and what does it do?

[aliasmask]

"code checker"? I did a search and you mentioned it as a potential project. But it was something I wasn't interested in doing mostly because of the work-to-reward ratio. Notepad++ does syntax highlighting. It could be programmed to include IDE features to prompt to fill-in fields as you type a function, but that's something I personally don't like. MOTE has that feature and I immediately disabled it.

[wolph42]

"code checker"? I did a search and you mentioned it as a potential project. But it was something I wasn't interested in doing mostly because of the work-to-reward ratio. Notepad++ does syntax highlighting. It could be programmed to include IDE features to prompt to fill-in fields as you type a function, but that's something I personally don't like. MOTE has that feature and I immediately disabled it.

ah yes, now it slowly starts to dawn on me. I did start something along these lines based on some code of you (hence the confusion). And forgot all about it . I think I have to agree, not worth the effort.

[Full Bleed]

@FB: when merging I came accross 'code checker' apparently from AM. Did you add that, and what does it do?

Sounds like you and AM have figured it out... but, as far as I can recall, I didn't do anything to that campaign. It was just in my "dropins" folder... and it should have been as I downloaded it.

[taustinoc]

Perhaps Git might be a better solution?

This isn't going to be very helpful, but I would recommend against Google Drive. I use it a lot, and it mostly works, but it does unpleasant things to file locks sometimes, and has been known to delete files entirely. Not often, but often enough that it can't be relied on as a sole backup solution. (It also crashes regularly, but that's because I sometimes use programs, like my image organizing program, that are constantly updating a lot of files, and if there's a conflict between which has a file locked, Drive usually takes itself out behind the barn and slits its own throat.)

(Fortunately, I keep regular backs the old fashioned way, too. As the old saying goes, "nobody cares if the backups work, only if the restores do.")

[JamzTheMan]

Perhaps Git might be a better solution?

This isn't going to be very helpful, but I would recommend against Google Drive. I use it a lot, and it mostly works, but it does unpleasant things to file locks sometimes, and has been known to delete files entirely. Not often, but often enough that it can't be relied on as a sole backup solution. (It also crashes regularly, but that's because I sometimes use programs, like my image organizing program, that are constantly updating a lot of files, and if there's a conflict between which has a file locked, Drive usually takes itself out behind the barn and slits its own throat.)

(Fortunately, I keep regular backs the old fashioned way, too. As the old saying goes, "nobody cares if the backups work, only if the restores do.")

Git as in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_(software)

Wolf, you can look into https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/ for an easy setup and syncing your code to GitHub. You could just sync the .rptok or if you have your code all externalized into text files, sync those with .rptok files as your "releases"...

Get on the Git train!

[wolph42]

Get on the Git train!

ok ok ill have a look.

[wolph42]

ok I had a look. One of the issues I immediately see is the fact that I work on at least 5 different 'locations' on the BoT I don't have the luxury to install git on all 5 places. Moreover it (not very often) happens that I work from a random 6th location. Now downloading and uploading the campaign file is fairly easy, if I throw git in the mix things get complicated (at least from my limited perspective).
Note that down and uploading the campaign file from dropbox to a local client and back is also probly the reason that caused this major FU. (When merging I noticed that there really was an enormous SL of changes just 'gone', and I still don't understand how it could have happened, save an error from DB side).

Also one of the things I noticed that can go wrong is when i choose to change a macro name. if i do this externally and sync the lot back into mt, i end up with two macros (the old named one and the new one). Its not something that happens a lot, but again during merging the two versions there were a few 'double' macros. (which can cause an entire world of debugging pain).

Then a final thing (but pls let me know if this works different in git). The BoT code is quite massive and takes roughly a minute to extract or submit using AM's macro extraction thingie (forgot the name, rpedit?). Usually i work on roughly upto 5 macros at the same time, these I have extracted and can submit them when need using rpedit. If I submit the entire code tree to git, how do I 'work' with e.g. 5 separate macros from within git? Its not feasible to work with the entire structure as
1. im constantly wading through 1000s of lines of code looking for that one macro
2. submitting changes would take 1 minute every single time (which would get frustrating very fast)

[JamzTheMan]

Developing on 5 different systems and keeping them in sync is very, well, intense. I would say you are probably unique in that way. I would HATE to have to keep my eclipse development environment in sync on 5 PC's (and so I don't!).

As far as syncing, you aren't syncing after every "code change" are you? Typically, you would have a local "repository", lets say "/git/bot" where you are using textpad to edit said files and using rpedit to get it into MT to test. When you are done for the day "or really when ever you feel you need to perform a sync to work on another computer" you would sync your local repository to, say, GitHub (there are other services and you can even host your own really). so now /git/bot is synced with GitHub. When you want to release a new version, you would "merge" those changes into the master branch and create Bot X.x.x Source tree is just one way, you can install git and do it via command line/shell as well. You could create a job/cron/etc to automate it if you really wanted to.

What it sound like you really need is MapTool to operate in a "directory" scheme vs .cmpgn/memory scheme. Then you would have all your macros as text files in a directory to edit freely and MT watching for changes to those files, loading as necessary. Then you "Git" that directory as a "local repository" and keep it in sync with GitHub. Others could then "clone" your GitHub repository and submit changes?

But ya, it may be painful in your setup. But it could help in a future design. Feel free to post what is "painful" and what you think could make things easier...

[wolph42]

I need too chew on this. Note though that changes currently get synced through Dropbox... Which apparently lately screws things up

[JamzTheMan]

I need too chew on this. Note though that changes currently get synced through Dropbox... Which apparently lately screws things up

I know the feeling, Google Drive is behaving badly for me lately to, as in, if I save my Campaign over an existing version, MT through a java.io error and locks the file, which is deleted when google drive shuts down... It seems to be size related, as it does it with 200mb campaign files but not smaller 200kb files. Nor does it do it if I copy via windows...

So we must repeat after ourselves. Drop Box (Google Drive) is not a backup solution. (much like Raid is not a backup solution)