[CF-Devel] RE: CFJavaEditor

[Andreas Vogl]

After having this discussion with Mark about arch loading
I've implemented this in the best way I could think of.

It is now possible to load arches and images in the JavaEditor
from the collected files "archetypes" and "crossfire.0".
Besides, it is still possible to load from individual archfiles.
(See "File->Options" menu)

The real blessing about this is that it takes only about one
third the time to load from collected arches. On my system
it takes only 9 secs as opposed to 30 secs.

Now the problem: What if a mapmaker modifies the arches, so
he cannot run from collected files anymore? For this case I've
included an option to generate the collected files automatically
(menu "Collect->Collect CF Arches").

I also used this as opportunity to write an additional variable
into the arches that mark the "directory path" of the arch.
This allows the editor to recogize which arch belongs to which
folder. Hence, when you load collected arches they are displayed
in the exact same cathegorys as when loaded from individual files.
(Note that the aforementioned additional variable is only present
in the collected "archetypes" file generated by the editor,
so it shouldn't bother anyone.)

This has the advantage that the sorting of arches is consistent,
so mapmakers can get used to it. Moreover, the arch directorys
provide a good and detailed cathegorization.

Another advantage is that the editor no longer requires a seperate
downloading of the arch package, unless a mapmaker wants to
modify arches. The entire thing is still only around 3 MB.

I had to rewrite large parts of the loading methods to get this
done. The worst part definitly was messing with that bytestream
of png-data. Anyways it seems to work fine now. Available at:
     
     http://mids.student.utwente.nl/~avogl/CFJavaEditor/
     
     

I didn't put any of it on CVS yet, but I plan to. If I don't
receive any negative feedback I might do it in the next days.
This goes along with the changed directory setup of the editor
and a considerable bunch of smaller changes (like the summary
button on attribute windows).

As a sidenote, the feature to collect arches with the editor
produces "archetypes" and "crossfire.0", both in valid CF format.
It probably wouldn't be too hard to extend this so it does a
full arch collect with animations and face file. Not sure if
that would be worth the effort?


AndreasV