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anathema / anathema_legacy

Anathema is an exhaustive suite for all aspects of Exalted series management. This repository hold the code to support Exalted 1, Exalted 2 and Exalted 2.5.
http://anathema.github.com
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versions.txt readability #201

Closed curttasker closed 12 years ago

curttasker commented 12 years ago

The version.txt file was a bit hard to read, mainly because it is plain text. The problem gets worse the more verbose we are in our changes, as it becomes a giant wall of text. Why not move our versions.txt file to markdown? It'd make releases more readable. I'm thinking mainly italics, bolds, hyperlinks, and

headers

of

various

sizes

You get the idea.

The two primary ways people seem to see our changelog is either on a forum posted inside a [quote] block, and clicking on a link to see this page.

The latter case would just work without any effort on our part. The former case would require @UrsKR (or whoever makes the forum build announcement), to take the document, render it as html (using a tool like this), and then converting the html to BBCode (using a tool like this or that).

I did a few test runs on the WW forums, and it looks like as long as we don't use some of the more exotic tools (code tags), everything should come out pretty good. Bolds, italics, underlines, blockquotes, links, all come through the conversion to BBCode fine. Headers get converted to bold or plain text, depending on the html2bbcode tool you use. Lists work fine, or not at all, depending on the html2bbcode tool you use.

We could always just forego the markdown->html->bbcode conversion and just go markdown->plaintext by just copying and pasting the plain text output of the version file from a web browser, and use the plain text inside a code block (like we do now) for the WW forum post. Or honestly, we could just put the raw markdown itself inside s quote block. Its actually pretty easy to read, and would be a small improvement over the plain text.

Anyways, any thoughts on the matter?

curttasker commented 12 years ago

Sample of part of our versions.txt file with a few basic markdown stylings:

Anathema Version History

(C) 2004 - 2008 by Sandra Sieroux and Urs Reupke (C) 2009 - 2012 by Urs Reupke, Sandra Sieroux, Scott Olson, Eric Astor, Paul Adams, Rob Rutherford Sean Mattox, Dennis Fotheringham, and Erin Martell. Exalted (C) 2001-2012 by White Wolf Publishing, Inc.

Website: anathema.github.com

Release 4.1.0 "Varang"

From this version onward, Anathema no longer uses the "Equipment.yap" file, but individual files for each item. It will back up your existing database, convert it, and remove the original Equipment.yap file.

Anathema now includes a default equipment database, which contains the mundane and artifact weapons, shields, and armor from the 2E Core and 2.5 Errata. If Anathema detects no items in your equipment database, it will populate it with the default database. If you're an existing user and wish to see this database, simply back up your old database, delete the equipment folder from your repository, and re-launch the program.

We now import custom charms from your repository, if the data files are provided. Consult the provided "Custom Charms.txt" for basic instructions.

Anathema no longer tracks the dots of Lunar Attribute specialties. They never factored into BP and XP, nor were they printed them.

Features

Bugfixes

Release 4.0.0 "Sperimin"

Changes for Exalted 2.5

curttasker commented 12 years ago

The exact same thing, but rendered as plain text: 

Sample of part of our versions.txt file with a few basic markdown stylings:

# Anathema Version History
(C) 2004 - 2008 by Sandra Sieroux and Urs Reupke
(C) 2009 - 2012 by Urs Reupke, Sandra Sieroux, Scott Olson, Eric Astor, Paul Adams, Rob Rutherford
                   Sean Mattox, Dennis Fotheringham, and Erin Martell.
Exalted (C) 2001-2012 by White Wolf Publishing, Inc.

Website: [anathema.github.com](anathema.github.com)

## Release 4.1.0 "Varang"

From this version onward, Anathema no longer uses the "Equipment.yap" file, but individual
files for each item.  It will back up your existing database, convert it, and remove the original
Equipment.yap file.

**Anathema now includes a default equipment database**, which contains the mundane and
artifact weapons, shields, and armor from the 2E Core and 2.5 Errata.  If Anathema detects
no items in your equipment database, it will populate it with the default database.  If you're an
existing user and wish to see this database, simply back up your old database, delete the
equipment folder from your repository, and re-launch the program.

**We now import custom charms from your repository**, if the data files are provided.
Consult the provided "Custom Charms.txt" for basic instructions.

Anathema no longer tracks the dots of Lunar Attribute specialties. They never factored
into BP and XP, nor were they printed them.

### Features
* Equipment modifiers to DVs now add to pools instead of modifying the static rating, allowing for more flexibility in designing your gear. All imported equipment from earlier releases will have its values doubled to achieve the same impact it had before; adjust as desired. 
* **New preference:** Allow equipment customization.  Allows to overwrite an item's name and description to make it truly yours.
* Equipment items have a "cost" statistic, which is not enforced.
* Equipment cards are now out of beta.
* Character loadout screen shows tooltips for items
* [Shadow493] Added missing Lunar templates from DotFA.
* [Jesse Belanger] Added Charm descriptions for Infernals. Most texts taken from the official Wiki.
* [Curtis Tasker] The character sheet uses your Awareness, Dodge, and Integrity specialties to display Join Battle, Join Debate, Dodge DV, and Mental Dodge DV values.
* [Curtis Tasker] Improved behavior of tabs.
* [Curtis Tasker] Improved look of toolbar buttons.
* [Curtis Tasker] Added a toolbar button for the equipment database.
* [Curtis Tasker] Added a 'Copy Item' button to the equipment database.
* [Curtis Tasker] Added tooltips to the New Item, Copy Item, Save Item, Delete Item buttons in the equipment database.
* [Curtis Tasker] Improved confirmation dialog for item deletion in the equipment database.
* [Curtis Tasker] Improved weapon stats tooltip in the equipment database.  Now shows weapon tags (Overwhelming, Piercing, etc).
* [Curtis Tasker] Default equipment database now included with Anathema.
* Added support for custom charm loading from the repository.
* Abyssal Taint Charms calculate their upgrade cost

### Bugfixes
* Charm Cards now sport the beautiful icons by Democritus.
* Improved rendering of some Charm cascades, notably Solar Melee, Solar Medicine and Solar Hero Style.
* Mobility penalty for equipment is calculated once more
* Half-Caste are printable once more
* Charms that raise the Essence cap still work after reloading
* Character creation calculates the available dots correctly for splats with fixed dots, like Sidereals
* Fixed an issue with attunement for items made of non-magical Materials
* Fixed free Virtue cap for non-Solars at character creation
* [Shadow493] First Age Solars have the correct points
* [Curtis Tasker] Item stats can contain the '&' character
* [Curtis Tasker] Clinch attacks now calculate using the higher of your Strength or Dexterity
* Hero style extension Charms are only available to matching Exalts
* (Solar/Melee) "Honored Companion of the Sun" is present
* (Solar/Melee) "Deft Hands Deflection" has correct cost
* (Solar/Melee) "Rising Sun Slash" and it's Abyssal Mirror have correct keywords and description
* (Solar/Resistance) "Iron Kettle Body" has correct cost
* (Infernal/SWLiHN) "Counter-Conceptual Interposition" requires "Essence-Dissecting Stare"
* (Infernal/Kimbery) "Bitter Heart Unbleeding" has an Essence 3 repurchase
* (Infernal) "Ascendancy Mantle" gives Broken Winged Crane as source
* (Infernal) "Past Life" Background shows plain english name
* (Sidereal/Craft) "World-Shaping Artistic Vision" has no repurchases
* (Abyssal) Updated Mirrored Charms for Exalted 2.5
* (Abyssal) Most backgrounds are limited to loyal Abyssals
* (Abyssal/Resistance) "Wounds Mean Nothing" shows all sources
* (Abyssal/Archery) "Withering Feathered Maelstrom" has correct prerequisites and cost
* (Lunar/Stamina) It is "Purging the Tarnished Silver" now
* (Lunar) "Tattoo Artifact" BG is available to all Lunars except Casteless and Half-Caste

## Release 4.0.0 "Sperimin"

### Changes for Exalted 2.5
* Updated Sidereal XP Cost
* Errata'd Orichalcum to reflect the improved accuracy in melee.
* Revised Charms for Solars, Lunars, Dragon-Blooded, Sidereal, Abyssal and Infernal Exalted
...
curttasker commented 12 years ago

Shorter snippet of above text, rendered to html, then converted to BBCode and posted to WW forums:

UrsKR commented 12 years ago

I'm totally fine with it. Markdown was made for things like this. For the forums, I'd go plaintext, since I find markdown quite readable myself.

What is there to do, except for changing the file extension to .md so github picks it up?

curttasker commented 12 years ago

Other than that, just doing some brute force cleanup on the file.

Headers: 

===------------------------------------------------------------------------------===
            Release 4.1.0 "Varang"
===------------------------------------------------------------------------------===

becomes: 

## Release 4.1.0 "Varang"

and

-- Features --

becomes:

### Features

It will pick up any lines that look like this:

* item 1
* item 2

automatically as lists, so there's no conversion there, unless you wish to make them numbered lists or just change the star character to a dash for readability.

Adding some simple bold tags around key new features we want players to notice, like We now import custom charms from your repository would definitely help draw attention to them.

UrsKR commented 12 years ago

Okay, so manually go through everything and replace it with the closest markdown equivalent. Probably not worth writing a macro for.

curttasker commented 12 years ago

Yeah, I could do the conversion in about 60 seconds :)

UrsKR commented 12 years ago

Honestly? Please do, I'd take 5 minutes.

curttasker commented 12 years ago

Bonus: when you rename the file, all links to the now non-existent file will redirect to the parent folder. So that's a win.

curttasker commented 12 years ago

@UrsKR Sure thing, let me just wrap up what I'm working on :)

curttasker commented 12 years ago

Took a little longer than estimated, there were a few places where things like

- [2E] (something/here) - yay descriptions

were getting picked up as hyperlinks, I just massaged them a little.

I also took the opportunity to get rid of all the hard wrapping in the file, and nuked all the tabs in favor of spaces.

I'm probably going to rebase my outstanding pull request onto the new master once this is done, just so whoever does the merge doesn't have to deal with merging my changes to versions.txt into the new versions.md file.

UrsKR commented 12 years ago

Thanks a lot!