Spent the afternoon striking even more tasks from the dreaded To-Do list; firstly, I made a couple of changes to the Export menu, allowing specific combinations of Layers (current, visible, or all) to be exported as a BMP. Previously, only the current Layer was exported as a BMP image, which was more than a little restrictive.
Next came a change to the Layer menu, with the option to view just the current Layer, all Layers, or no Layers (the reason for these might not be readily apparent, but after using the Editor at length I was finding their absence more and more annoying).
Next came more tweaks to the Brush thumbnail system, which ensured that only the current Brush is affected by the "Regen" button. Whilst knee-deep in this particular chunk of code, I also added the regenerate current option to the Brush menu (along with a "regenerate all" option, for consistency). And in a similar vein, I also added the option to clear the current Brush or clear all Brushes.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Saturday 24th
The past few days have been spent working on the documentation, as there were several areas which, in the cold light of day, needed further expansion. Today involved documenting the various file formats, and I think I'll also put together an example file containing load/save routines. The docs are almost complete, barring a Tricks & Tips section and the A-Z index; once finalised, I can also put together a Word/PDF version.
Creating the documentation has thrown up a number of suggestions and bugs, so today I started whittling down this list. First off was the option to discard the Static or Parallax Layers, which was in the Editor originally, then dropped, and now resurrected again (partly because Static and Parallax information is stored in the Project File, so it makes sense to be able to discard them to prevent the Editor loading unnecessary files). This also threw up an obscure bug in the Map Test code, which thankfully was easily fixed.
Next came a few error checks to the INI file system, as the Editor crashed if there was no INI file present. After making a few tweaks, the program now creates its own INI file if one cannot be found.
After that, I added an ID number to the Project File system; the reason for this will become apparent if (or when?) FishEd is updated for Blitz Max; doubtless there will be differences between the Project Files, so this ID number will allow me to detect if an older file is being loaded and if so, load the information correctly.
Next came a tweak to the checkboxes at the top of the screen; I print an asterisk next to Layers which have unsaved changes, and now any locked Layers are also illustrated by way of an "X" next to the Layer number (locked Layers are shown on the Info Panel, but this is not always visible as it shares a Tabber with the Mini-Map).
The final task involved a tweak to the Animation system; I'd been toying with the idea of putting a limit on the number of frames in an animation sequence, which thus far has been limitless. After careful thought, I decided to cap the system at 256 tiles (I can't really see anyone hand-crafting a sequence more than 256 Tiles in size!).
Creating the documentation has thrown up a number of suggestions and bugs, so today I started whittling down this list. First off was the option to discard the Static or Parallax Layers, which was in the Editor originally, then dropped, and now resurrected again (partly because Static and Parallax information is stored in the Project File, so it makes sense to be able to discard them to prevent the Editor loading unnecessary files). This also threw up an obscure bug in the Map Test code, which thankfully was easily fixed.
Next came a few error checks to the INI file system, as the Editor crashed if there was no INI file present. After making a few tweaks, the program now creates its own INI file if one cannot be found.
After that, I added an ID number to the Project File system; the reason for this will become apparent if (or when?) FishEd is updated for Blitz Max; doubtless there will be differences between the Project Files, so this ID number will allow me to detect if an older file is being loaded and if so, load the information correctly.
Next came a tweak to the checkboxes at the top of the screen; I print an asterisk next to Layers which have unsaved changes, and now any locked Layers are also illustrated by way of an "X" next to the Layer number (locked Layers are shown on the Info Panel, but this is not always visible as it shares a Tabber with the Mini-Map).
The final task involved a tweak to the Animation system; I'd been toying with the idea of putting a limit on the number of frames in an animation sequence, which thus far has been limitless. After careful thought, I decided to cap the system at 256 tiles (I can't really see anyone hand-crafting a sequence more than 256 Tiles in size!).
Monday, June 12, 2006
Monday 12th
After spending quite a bit of time addressing issues with the Demo Version I recently released (it turns out that people were having trouble unZIPping a file...), today I set about tidying up a few issues and getting the docs into shape.
The main task was to find a nice way to bring up the Docs if the user chooses "Help" from the menu; after creating a small browser, and attempting to trigger both online and offline versions of the HTML documentation, I settled on just an online help system which launches in the default browser.
Spent quite a bit of time sifting through the docs so far, and ensuring that all of the information was consistent with the Editor (I'd recently added a few menu commands, for instance, which I'd neglected to add to the docs). I also tinkered briefly with the Toolbar, adding an icon for the Test Map feature which fits in very nicely.
The main task was to find a nice way to bring up the Docs if the user chooses "Help" from the menu; after creating a small browser, and attempting to trigger both online and offline versions of the HTML documentation, I settled on just an online help system which launches in the default browser.
Spent quite a bit of time sifting through the docs so far, and ensuring that all of the information was consistent with the Editor (I'd recently added a few menu commands, for instance, which I'd neglected to add to the docs). I also tinkered briefly with the Toolbar, adding an icon for the Test Map feature which fits in very nicely.
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