[cr-stagg]

Genma Saotome, on 15 July 2018 - 08:10 PM, said:

Well, I think there may be something here that's worth a few more posts.

AFAICT, nowhere does the con editor display the value contained in Name(). What is displayed is the file name and string that immediately follows "Wagon (". I suppose that is also true for both .wags and .engs.

IIRC in the MSTS days there was a requirement that the string that followed "Wagon (" was supposed to be the same as the file name. I always thought that was pretty stupid but hey, it was Kuju and not their first imbecility.

Here is the dilemma I see: If we are supposed to put in the value of the file name, why bother displaying it twice in the con editor? Or, if we can do whatever comes to mind, we could enter what is in Name(), right? Except that we already have Name(). So what useful third value is there to use? <silence>. That's the issue I'm raising.

Goku is using this string in the scrollable column of data AND is displaying it under the picture of the model. He's not using Name() anywhere. Should Name() be displayed? In the scrollable column? Under the model? For myself I'd like to see it in teh scrollable column (along with the ability to stretch that column left of right.

Now I understand that's an entirely subjective opinion and that other people will have perfectly legitimate reasons for their own preferred data. I'm just not seeing any sense in using what comes after Wagon.

Questions:

• Have I correctly recalled that in the old days we were supposed to do Wagon ( filename?
  
• Where did MSTS display the value of Name()?
  
• What did Conbuilder display?

Dave,

• Yes Kuju is the culprit for the MSTS need for the Filename and the Wagon Line in WAG files to be EXACTLY the same and for the Filename, the Wagon line, the Engine Line and the second Wagon line in ENG files to be EXACTLY the same. The reason is the way that they setup the storage of the ENG data. ENG data is stored in two sections. The Wagon part in one and the Engine part in another. The second Wagon line, the one in the Engine section, provides the reference for where to look of the Wagon data for that engine.
  
  The affect in MSTS of when these items were not EXACTLY the same varied with the differences. If the spelling was different MSTS would give an Error message then crash after "Continue" was clicked. If there was a difference in the case used, as in Dash9 and dash9, the Engine would not be listed in the selection for the Explore mode or when an Activity that use the Engine there would be a blank displayed for the Player loco.
  
  ORTS is not affected at all when these items are not EXACTLY the same. With version 6.0 of ConBuilder a flag was added so that ConBuilder would skip startup tests for errors that would crash MSTS but have no affect on ORTS like this one.
  
  
• MSTS displays the Name () info the same as OTRTS in the Menu selection pulldown to select which Engine is to be used in the Explore mode or the one that is listed as the lead of the Player Consist when an Activity is selected. When there is no Name () line then both sims default to the filename.
  
• As to ConBuilder (and this also applies to the MSTS CE, Convoi, Route Riter's CE, YardMaster and Goku's TSRE CE) displays the Name () info or defaults to the filename when no Name () line is present. ConBuilder also lists the Full file specification in the status line at the bottom of the window when an ENG or WAG is selected.