T5 Success; Cargo program on GitHub

The T5 Kickstarter was quite the success...

I've also posted my cargo program on GitHub. I actually got a request in asking about it today surprisingly.  Perhaps I'll get back into it now that T5 is actually coming out this year.

Traveller 5 on Kickstarter. It has become addictive to watch.

Traveller on iPad

Work gave me an iPad & Macbook Pro (I'll be needing to write some stuff for iPads). As a learning experience I may try & (starting small) write the cargo program for that. Initial analysis of Objective-C andthe XCode IDE indicate I will be going very, very slowly at first.

Just curious if anyone would be interested.

Silverlight update 2

I've managed to get the 2 main classes compiled, but noted several things:

• Datatables are not supported. I've rolled my own, but I'm going to look into what I am doing and probably re-write all that. Datatables make for quick and easy data binding, but so do classes. So there may well be a complete rewrite of the classes
• Silverlight uses IsolatedStorage - in Windows it is buried in the user/local/....someplace area, not sure where it is on a Mac. So I need to figure out how to store the files: we can only read/write to that area. I'm kinda hoping that the installer, if it includes files, will stick them in the right place. I'll find out eventually.
• printing will have to be completely revamped. However, Silverlight uses FlowDocuments (a MS-version of PDF essentially, which are fairly easy to create and the on-screen and print results are close to identical).

So, I've managed the 1st part. Next step is to see if I can read an SEC file, and generate my set of systems and do some basic displays. I'm actually going to have a Sector class, which in turn has a list of World classes in it (or maybe even Subsector class that has the world lists, not sure yet).  When I get that working in the next few weeks (I've limited time to work on this) and it seems to work for a PC, I'll release it so anyone with a Mac can start testing to see if it actually does anything.

Cargo handler in Silverlight - Mac compatible

I'm working on converting the cargo program to Silverlight. This means it will work on Macs and any browser that supports the Silverlight plugin.  It will still be a program you download to run, but it is sandboxed and runs in your browser.

The classes are about 75% good as is. However, some things I was using (datasets, arraylists) are not supported in Silverlight, so I'll be converting them. And I'll be working on the 3rd iteration of the classes.

The interface should be a LOT nicer - I've been using XAML at work and it is really sweet in terms of presentation, customizing and data binding. All sorts of ideas are bouncing through my brain.

I'll keep things posted here.

adding expanded trade tables from Merchant Prince

Work in progress...

Alell update

Added some universities and a couple of images, minor edits. Still needs work but it is slowly coming together, I think.
 http://cid-68f917204deb20d2.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Alell.odt

Alell documentation

Still a work in progress: http://cid-68f917204deb20d2.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Alell.odt

Allell - System diagram

Still playing with GIMP and other tools. At least I have the planets scaled correctly now, but the lighting is not correct. And funny - I actually know HOW to do that...

Anyway, I'm working on an Alell source module for the heck of it. This is part of that.

Alell, an overview

Playing with a few image editors, and working on the Alell system:

There

No news is good news?

No comments on my last release either here or at the MGT-Aids site. So either everything works perfect (sounds of crickets) or no one has looked at the new version. I'll try & get back to it again this weekend, and see if there were any other requests out there I've forgotten.

And - have a great day!

weekend update

I've released the latest update on my skydrive account: Traveller2.zip

I'll try & get around to updating the MGT Aid file, but as of this morning for some reason it was not letting me log in.  (afternoon update: I relogged back in & deleted/reloaded the file).

I've also added the monthly payment check - when saving the ship file (and this also happens automatically when you exit the program) it checks to see if we've passed 30 days since the last time we've paid. If so, we add 30 days (and it should take into account wrapping around day 365) to the last paid date, subtract out your monthly costs, and add a note:

You can also add 1-3 days as well from a button on the status bar next to the date:

I've finished the preliminary Mongoose file checking. It only checks the big things (the correct number of fields, the correct number of lines). It does not check the actual values other than the die roll on the actual values table.

Update Plans

I plan on the following 3 updates to be released over the weekend:

1. complete at least the Mongoose trade file check utility
2. give the user an option to add days to the ship's date
   
3. fix the ship save function to save the date as well

If I get motivated and have the time, I may spec out at least the ideas I have about tracking NPCs, and allowing custom content to be added to the ship file. I am really thinking of images - being able to add deck plans would be cool. That and there has been a request for printing a ship data sheet. I really need to figure out reporting better.

Just remember - all the files this program use are text, so hand-editing is allowed. Notepad works just fine.

draft 1 of file checking

I've added a first draft of the file checking. So far it only checks Mongoose trade codes, but here is a snapshot of the current version, along with a file. I've not double-checked (hey, it is 5:38 in the morning!) but my guess is that this is the only incorrect line.

The things it checks for the trade codes are the number of lines (and this would only be a warning, not a breaking deal. I do plan on adding a column for passing the checks) (and this is only valid CSV lines, it ignores the headers & blank lines) and that there are 10 items per line.

I'll probably get this finished up & re-released over the weekend. If anyone knows a better way other than deleting & reloading the file in Yahoo, please let me know.

better forms

My new job has an interesting form thing I'm figuring out, and the TravellerMap page uses a PDF generator taht could create some interesting forms.

So - if there is a demand for better forms, I may get around to playing with that this weekend.

some corrections made, not yet released

I've fixed 2 of the 3 issues (allow more than Cr99999 for ship expenses, added a flag for allowing illegal goods in Mongoose Traveller - adds a new ship option).  I still need to get to fixing the save, making it work as well as being backwards compatible.  Hopefully this coming weekend I'll have some time & fix & figure out how to re-release it.

new multi-version trade generator

I've started from scratch, deciding to make it more object-oriented. The new version supports classic Traveller, T5 & Mongoose Traveller. It uses a ship config file that contains the info to run the program, so you could test the same ship in each version to see how they stack up.

The interface is a bit different (and sorry - I am no UI expert). It uses basic CSV & XML files - no hidden database.

Not sure about releasing it yet - I've a copy stashed on-line that does not contain all the data in the tables, but I am unsure of copyright issues.

Several enhancements:

• you can add notes per system
• uses SEC format files for the system (notes are kept in the notes.xml file)
• you can add images to systems
• uses the Berka 11 world system for showing basic images
• actually has a few reports

Anyway - lots of work went into this, but it is still not done.

T5 cargo generator

Working on updating the LBB2 cargo generator to be able to handle T5 stuff.

It now works with SEC files and can generate the T5 trade classifications.

LBB2 software

Trying to figure out how to post software for others to download. If I can figure it out, it would be cargos.zip. Just unzip that to where you want to run it. It has 4 files in it:
cargos.exe - the actual program
cargos.xml - LBB2 cargos in an ugly XML format
Aslan.xml - LBB2 cargo that allows for 'special' cargos, and using a couple of Aslan products
SpinwardMarches.xml - an XML file of the Regina subsector of the Spinward Marches.

Note: the XML files were created to test XPATH and some other things. The sector file only has the Regina sub-sector in it, and only Regina itself has more than the basic main world data in it (working on a data access program to store/retrieve data via XPATH stuff. The expanded Regina system comes from book 6, Scouts.

And yes, pretty much every other Traveller player who writes software has probably tried this. My excuse was it is a learning process for work!