[Genma Saotome]

markus_GE, on 24 June 2014 - 01:44 PM, said:

It´s not about the inc´s in general - as I´ve said, I welcome the idea myself. I really welcome it, even if it will probably make my DPU program obsolete some time.

My concern is how there use will fit in with distributed assets, made by somebody who doesn´t know how I have set up my central library. Will it make or break things?

Everything is fine as long as no distribution of said files happens. But that is unlikely to no happen.

I say it again, long live the includes, even if they will likely once make the half-year efforts I already put into DPU obsolete.

Cheers, Markus

Two issues then. The first is distributing the files, as of today: We're I to zip up the stuff I've made and send it you you'd get a archive w/ two directories in it... one called "Fleet_Stds" and the other something like XM_MILW_702584_MT. You'd install both into \Trainsets. No problem there. Now if all sorts of people are doing the same thing and they're distributing "Fleet Stds" and I'm doing "Fleet_Stds" and you're doing "Markus_Stds", etc. etc., we don't have any more of a mess to straighten out than we do now w/ directory names: You either accept them as they are or take a few minutes to edit the name to conform to your own preferences. Do you always accept whatever someone else has put into Name()? The folder name? The .wag name? I don't. All three get renamed (multiple reasons but one is that it tells me I have replaced the contents of the .wag file and so it is "safe" to use).

The other issue remains hypothetical: If .con files had an absolute path on each WagonData() line AND I sent you a .con file you'd have to look at those paths and see if they conformed to your own set up. Obviously if you and I followed the same definition of that standardized library the only thing that would need checking would be the disk drive. OTOH if we had rather different ideas about how that library is organized then you'd have to replace my path with yours on each line of the .con file. Certainly a bother... one reason why I think mnemonics should be used -- you'd change far fewer lines. Obviously it would be best if the structure of this hypothetical library was standardized... but that is for some other thread... and even if there was general agreement on the idea there's getting it implemented in code too. IOW, very hypothetical.

[markus_GE]

I have proposed the standardization / common agreement thing already. I still like the idea, though I know it´s unlikely to happen.

But, good point by you (and you´ll probably get me to shut up with it now :) ) I somehow had a roadblock (thoughtblock?) that kept me from seeing I´m already doing all this customization stuff myself. So, Be it named differently what you hypothetically would send me, I could just adopt it. But, it would still require me to switch out include files, should those provided not conform. And that could become a real PITA, IMHO, with everyone using different setups, how the contents of an ENG file are to be distributed over various INCs.

It has also already been discussed to standardize / make a common agreement on these. Making a standard INC library to work with any TRAINSET folder, no matter what it looks like, by simply hard-linking the library would already make things easier. Add mnemonics to it, optionally, and the hardlinking wouldn´t even be required. Inside the library, all necessary INCs (except for those that are only specific to a certain folder of cars) can be found and simply found, swapped and changed. However, there would have to be more or less common practice on what to put in which INC, in order to make swapping easy.

The advantage of an INC library detached from the TRAINSET is, that it works with almost any TRAINSET configuration, given that absolute paths are allowed in file includes. And, one can easily change the setup for any car, at least with the global files. Disadvantage? Well, nothing really. As said, some editing upon installing things will always be (and has always been) required, but one could try and keep it down.

Hope the above makes some sort of sense. Nervousness about graduation in two days is slowly growing :crazy:

Cheers, Markus