PC Gen data sets

[kingpaul]

Not so much a criticism, but if there are any good tutorials someone could point me to?

There's the documentation that comes with the program and our List File Help group.

 

[Thurbane]

Thanks for that.

..and thanks for the excellent program. PCGen rocks.

 

[Mercule]

but if there are any good tutorials someone could point me to?

Definitely look at the documentation that came with PCGen. The List File Class is a good place to start. Most of the time, I have the tag index (in the help file) open in one window while I'm editting my datasets in another. I just wish I had two monitors at home.

 

[Graf]

Ah! Sorry for the confusion. I didn't recognize that you were focused on the past (i.e. when you bought all the data sets). I was focused on the situation NOW, where no data sets are available anymore and everyone has to enter their own data, regardless of the tool used. If the data sets were still available, that would be a definite advantage to PCGen. Alas, that advantage has now vaporized, so the ability to easily add custom material has become a critical element for anyone who doesn't play a basic SRD game.

This is the heart of the issue.
If they had included an easy method of selecting class features or entering data then you wouldn't be as driven to buy their data sets.

This is a classic problem when Open Source programs go private. What's benefitial for the community and what's benefitial for the (now private even if they keep some superfical open source stuff around) developer are at odds.

The profit incentive is extremely powerful, if PcGen had remained open source and independent I don't think you would have seen as many updates with zero backwards compadibility (i.e. they were good for people buying the data sets and bad for everyone else).

It's basically just marketing. Microsoft did the same thing with Word.

But, yes, that should be something you think about before you decide to start installing everything in their custom format.

 

[thpr]

This is the heart of the issue.

Your post qualifies as libel. You may wish to edit it and/or apologize.

[edited, ironically, for a typo]

 

[schporto]

The profit incentive is extremely powerful, if PcGen had remained open source and independent I don't think you would have seen as many updates with zero backwards compadibility (i.e. they were good for people buying the data sets and bad for everyone else).

It's basically just marketing. Microsoft did the same thing with Word.

(note some heavy sarcasm here)
I know I was so upset when they Mosaic moved into netscape, and then into mozilla, I mean geez they never posted the CSS scripts back to mosaic. What the heck? I paid good money (all of 0$ !!!) for that mosaic program. And now, NOW they won't even acknowledge there may be some issues with it. I mean really it's all netscape's fault.
And yes I really do think it's the same thing.
-cpd

 

[jujutsunerd]

Your post qualifies as libel. You may wish to edit it and/or apologize.

[edited, ironically, for a typo]

Probably best to not feed the troll. Just add it to your ignore list.

/Jonas, following his own advice

 

[Firzair]

We've looked at a conversion to XML, but there were a myriad of reasons why we couldn't go there. The main reason being that our current LST format isn't just data, it's actually a programming language in its own right and that's not easy to convert to a language which should be treated as purely representing data . I'd love to see PCGen go to XML or some sort of embedded database, but that won't happen until we rewrite the core (version 6.0).

Hm... if the problem lies in xml not being a programming language why don't you change the view on xml: take reanjir's RPGL aproach (which I use in my RPG XML rules engine) and use it as a programming language.
Here's an example from my data/rpgl files that calculates the ability modifier:

  <function name="recalc-ability-mod" attach=".abilities.*.current" attachobj="creature" when="on-change">
    <set name="ability">
      <get-varname-part varname="[fullname]" pattern=".abilities.*.current" />
    </set>
    <if>
      <is-set name=".abilities.[ability].base" />
      <set name=".abilities.[ability].mod">
        <subtract>
          <divide round="down">
            <a default="10">.abilities.[ability].current</a>
            <a>2</a>
          </divide>
          <a>5</a>
        </subtract>
      </set>
      <set name=".abilities.[ability].mod">
        <a>0</a>
      </set>
    </if>
  </function>

This function is attached to the on-change event of all abilities cuurent score. It figures out which ability was changed and the recalculates the modifier for the ability.
RPGL is really nice because the xml is already in token form that can be easily converted to an internal object code structure and it's easy to comprehend.

Greetings
Firzair

 

[labyrinth]

I had a crack at entering custom data for Knight and Beguiler character classes, and I gave up pretty quickly. I have pretty good general IT skills and have done some programming in C++...

Not so much a criticism, but if there are any good tutorials someone could point me to?

If you run out of patience, you might want to give Hero Lab a try. I haven't tried adding either of the above two classes yet. However, I've had zero trouble adding the ones that I HAVE tried.

Before you add new classes, add some other stuff to get the hang of it, since classes are the most complex in all the tools I've tried. This suggestion probably holds true for all of the tools. Once I had the hang of things, adding classes worked reasonably well for me with Hero Lab.

 

[Henry]

This is the heart of the issue.
If they had included an easy method of selecting class features or entering data then you wouldn't be as driven to buy their data sets.

To be fair:

1) PCGen is NOT Codemonkey publishing.

2) PCGen IS open by the terms of the LPGL (as far as I know still). It is not "closed" in a legal sense.

3) PCGen grew from a stable of programmers in their free time following the original LST files design as laid down by its originator. It was not ever "closed" in any sense, and someone who wanted to put the work in to fork the code base all on their own or with another group could feel free to. Pick another name besides PCGen, take the best bits of coding, and have at it!