This code is broken

[jaseg]

This is just my personal opinion. I started refactoring and rewriting your code, but I gave up. I will write a similar program from scratch (just not in java). Here a list of Issues I found with your code (except for the ones for which I already submitted github issues), so you can improve:

• A lot of variable names are upper case. In Java, it is convention to write variables in a camelCase beginning with a lower case letter.
• A lot of constants are mixed_CASE. In Java, it is convention to use UPPER_CASE for any constants.
• You use a lot of static methods, some of which access global variables in other classes. Java is strongly object oriented and I consider this really bad style. A static function is one that only accesses vm-wide stuff like the standard input. Anything requiring state beyond what you can manage with a return value and some params ought to be a member variable of some class.
• You use distribute compiled stuff in a git repository, the correct place for jars and zips is the "downloads" section of your project's github page.
• You do a lot of parsing the hard way, using manual string manipulation. A lot of that stuff would be way easier with some regular expressions thrown in. You may have a look at the "Coordinate.parseString" method in my fork of the repository to see how you could do it.
• You keep unfinished code in the master branch. I am writing about that "rcon" feature. Since you use git, the appropriate place for such an unused, yet-in-development file is a separate branch.
• I think that whole "upate" feature is not only useless, but harmful. On some platforms (like most linux distributions) you already have an automatic update function for software in the form of a full-blown package manager. Similar software even exists on other platforms: MacOS has homebrew, and M$ Windows has some msi-based tool coupled to the automatic system updater (I do not know how they call that, though). These tools will be more stable, more secure and better maintained than any of the thousands of self-made tools that evolve around every other project.
• Since the addition of a /tp (teleport) command accepting coordinates with Minecraft 1.3 your code pretty much became obsolete, since now this reading-and-writing of map files coupled with repeated server restarts is a ridiculous way of doing the task.
• You do the config parsing yourself. You could instead use one of the many quick ways of doing this the java platform provides you with, the easiest being a simple java .properties file. Have a look at http://commons.apache.org/configuration/
• You include a custom implementatino of url encoding. You could just have used java.net.URLEncoder (http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/net/URLEncoder.html)

This is not meant as an insult or rant, I just want to encourage you to improve your coding skills! thanks for your time, jaseg

PS: One positive thing I want to note: You used https for the data transfer from github, so at least the update function is more or less secure against evildoers in teh internetz.

[Morlok8k]

i understand that a lot of MLG isn't standard java code. And i already knew this.

Java isn't my standard language. In fact it's the first java program i ever worked on. I hadn't coded in any language in years before working with MLG. My last language was QBASIC, back in the DOS days. (except for a little HTML/JS/CSS here and there.)

I also have no formal Java training. Everything I've done has been from looking at other example code and a Java for Dummies book i bought. (And looking at a lot of JavaDocs)

I'll work on some of your suggestions. For the update section, I wanted a unified piece of code that worked for all platforms. It was never my intent for MLG to have an installation package and use native update methods. I wanted a single file that you can put in any folder, and it can work there.

as for the /TP command... I looked at that myself. you need an active user logged into the server to move around. So, it doesn't work in this case. Also, note that this program is now almost 2 years old now. it comes from back in the old Alpha days, and is compatible with every version of the server (except the unreleased buggy versions of Beta 1.9)

as for having a lot of custom or manual code - I don't want to import a lot of libraries - this is why i've avoided apache commons, etc. MLG only relies upon the base Java framework, and the JNBT library. This way, if i have a bug, I know its my code - and not some blackbox library. Maybe its because i'm used to having to make everything myself, back in the day.

as for the Rcon stuff and github branches - I'm not even going to go near github branches with a 10 foot pole. i' actually going to remove the Rcon stuff, as it just seems overkill. All that framework just to send a stop command...

anyways, I took on this project originally because the program was no longer supported by the original author, and it needed an "!" removed. I originally had no intention of expanding it or continually re-factoring it for this long. But i have, and i will continue trying to make it better. (I do look at my code i made a year ago, and ask - why did i do it this way? -- oh yeah, Its the first way that worked!)

And so for your general topic on MLG not being up to normal Java coding standards: I find myself in this position: I have coded in many many languages over the years, never fully mastering one, largely self-taught in all. (I've also noticed that I code very verbosely in all languages - aka, the hard way) So I'm beyond the typical beginners tutorial ("hello world"), and good Intermediate tutorials are hard to come by.

[Morlok8k]

oh, and to reply to the title "This code is broken":

It works. I have hundreds of users download it everyday. very few complaints - and usually due to user error.