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Majiir / Kethane

Resource mining and processing plugin for Kerbal Space Program.
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/23979-Kethane
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add KSP-AVC version file for auto-module checking #250

Closed vosechu closed 10 years ago

vosechu commented 10 years ago

Dearest Kethane authors/maintainers,

I just started working with @tyrope on a project to add a version checker to KSP modules. I know that it would help me a lot! He said that helping him contact module authors would be really helpful so here I am! If you would be willing to accept this patch we would really appreciate it!

The KSP Addon Version Checker is my attempt at trying to have some sort of version checking available for people who play KSP with lots of mods. more information and source available right here on github

erendrake commented 10 years ago

This is a neat idea, did you consider using the version that comes with the plugin's DLL rather than its own file?

vosechu commented 10 years ago

I think that's a good idea, and on Kethane that would work, but most mods don't include their version anywhere. :/ Not all the mods can be as well built as Kethane! :thumbsup:

I also think there's some value in having a plaintext version. My hope is that having the file there will be very discoverable and encourage people to start asking questions like: "why doesn't my mod have a version file" or "what are these version files for?".

I wanted to include a link to the AVC script, but I don't know that our script is going to be the winner. Maybe blizzy's toolbar might end up being a better fit for updating, I don't know. But I do know that json files are easy to parse. :)

What do you think?

Also, as the first to engage, do you think there's anything else that absolutely must be in the version file? Someone mentioned the md5sum but that seems too painful for mod authors for my taste.

erendrake commented 10 years ago

Full disclosure, i am not the maintainer for Kethane. I am however the maintainer for kOS which as you state. Doesn't have its version available really. I like this idea however so i thought i would comment.

As for stuff to add I might like a "What's New" section. you could get that from the changelog but I always think that changelogs are pretty verbose and having a place you can briefly highlight new features would be cool.

Also A field that states what version of KSP the mod is compatible with.

vosechu commented 10 years ago

Ah, cool! kOS was on my mods to contact. How convenient! :)

We should probably move this off of Kethane. :) I've made a new issue here: https://github.com/tyrope/KSP-addon-version-checker/issues/5

Majiir commented 10 years ago

I'm generally opposed to this kind of vendor-specific metadata file, especially if it means version and compatibility information is duplicated. I've written on the forums in more detail about my views on mod managers and metadata files. I'm not completely opposed to them, but for now I'm closing this issue because of the aforementioned issues and because the project requiring it doesn't seem to have been completed. Feel free to comment here as things progress or if you have any other thoughts.