mrms: Better path prefixes

[marekmaskarinec]

Original issue:

~mrms/tophat#39

Initial message:

Currently, paths work in the following way (which isn't documented anywhere):

Normally tophat will prepend the respath to the path. respath is empty by default, but can be modified using the -dir flag. If the user uses the raw:// prefix in the path, tophat will not modify the path.

Proposed solution:

1. remove the respath logic altogether
2. make the raw:// behavior default (raw:// will stay as an option for people who want to be explicit)
3. Add the following prefixes:
   • res:// will evaluate to the resource directory of the game. By default that is the folder the main file is in
     • data:// will use a platform-dependent data storage path (%appdata%,~/.local/share`).

ske

I support this

mrms

I think the most explicit thing we can do is only allowing the user to use the data:// directory when they specify the name of the project in the flags. At some point, we might eventually need a project specification file.

Generally, I want to avoid the use of flags.

We can make user be able to make their own protocols, by doing something like th.bind("data", th.appdata("project name")) this is a more versatile solution though less declarative.

I don't think there will be that much use for this. If there is some protocol we find useful, it can always be part of tophat.

---

For now I'm going to go with the main.um's directory name, if that's ok with you.

ske

ske

Accidentally clicked resolve, my bad.

mrms

An interesting question arises: what folder should be used for the data:// prefix? More exactly, what comes after <platform_specific>/tophat/? All the games can't just share the same directory. There are various solutions I propose:

1. Specify the game's name using an API function. th.setName("my_awesome_game")
2. Guess it from something like the main.um's directory name
3. Make some metadata file next to the main.um, this would open up many other possibilities.

What do you think ~ske?

I think the most explicit thing we can do is only allowing the user to use the data:// directory when they specify the name of the project in the flags. At some point, we might eventually need a project specification file.

Or maybe, find another solution.

We can make user be able to make their own protocols, by doing something like th.bind("data", th.appdata("project name")) this is a more versatile solution though less declarative.

Or hell, something even more generic, having the bind function execute a signal/callback which can allow for absolutely custom operations, like fetching something from the internet.

What are your thoughts?

ske

Totally ok!

mrms

I've implemented the behaviour (it's in the path-prefix branch). Please test if it works correctly on windows.

[skejeton]

Will test tomorrow.