New Software Utilities Available

[Slink182]

Ok, sorry about that. For all those who have privately emailed me with requests for the Classic Traveller Utility that was previously mentioned here, it is now in the Software section of the eLibrary.

While I was at it, I also put together a few other utilities that I regularly use and placed them in the eLibrary. They are:

* a starship malfunction utility (based on a JTAS article on the topic)
* a comprehensive CT equipment library (covers weapons, equipment, vehicles, etc.)
* a cargo trade calculator based on the Merchant Prince rules

Currently, I'm guessing that they're going through the approval stage, so the links to the d/l in Software aren't live yet. Hopefully, they'll be available sometime in the next 24-48 hours

Cheers,
Steve

 

[clementk]

Vb4Run.exe Run-Time .dlls for Visual Basic 4.0 Apps may be useful (or similar dlls) and is about 900kb.

Casey

[EDIT] due to brain failure on part of this poster.

I can read calendar dates and usernames sometimes, honest!

 

[Slink182]

Casey: did you pull it down from the eLibrary, or are you currently evaluating it before it goes live (I can't see it in the Software section yet).

Yah, I'm aware of that issue - the .dll is a remnant from the original programming environment (Win98) that didn't necessarily exist on other platforms. Hated "dll hell", which is why I do all my development these days in Delphi.

The other programs should also be at eLibrary already.

 

[clementk]

woops! Wrong program it looks like.

Well at least I'll know where to look for the dll's.

Casey

 

[Slink182]

YAY! My CT utility programs are now live at eLibrary! For all those who asked for the CT Utility, it is now available for d/l.

I'm so happy...

 

[Granpafishy]

I LIKE!!! While I only got the first 3 books, those programs will be extremely useful. Thank You!!

 

[Vargas]

I tried installing the program and got

"Cannot find the source file 'C:\Program Files\CT Utility\\Readme.tx_' to install."

Anyone know what's what?

 

[bairdec]

I made a copy of the readme file and changed the name to Readme.tx_ and it installed fine.

 

[Vargas]

Wacky but it worked. Thanks!

 

[Slink182]

It's crap installation/distribution problems like that which is why I stopped coding in VB.

At least in Delphi, I can compile an application as a complete standalone app.

 

[clementk]

Liking the Starship Malfunction program (Evil GM laugh) and the CT Utility is good. However the world save function doesn't save everything that's generated and the Encounter Builder gives results like this except for the random NPC:

{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 MS Sans Serif;}}
\viewkind4\uc1\pard\lang1033\f0\fs17 Encounter Type: 9 fugitives
\par Location: merchants guild
\par Weaponry: revolvers; halberd
\par Armor: none
\par Vehicle: none
\par Reaction: hostile; may attack
\par
\par }

and the ship builder seems to not save full files. I saved to .doc after noting the save problems in the readme file. Hmmm...they seem to be the same errors as in the .rtf and .txt files.

However this is still a very useful tool (esp. for free) and most of the info takes up only a few lines so either doing a screen snapshot or just jotting down the info isn't a problem.

Casey

 

[Slink182]

Casey: I usually copy/paste the generated text into a word processor, and edit the extraneous information out there. For anything with tables (like the animal encounter lists), I usually set the fonts to something fixed-width.

I don't think I've ever encountered any problems with the ship builder's save routines, but I'll take a look at it this weekend. Of course, it might also be a holdover from its original language and environment (MS Visual Basic on Win98SE), and that the CTU is the first extended program I had ever written (outside of simple Basic and Fortran programs for the DOS environment 20 years ago).

I've thought of rewriting the entire program using Visual Pascal, but eventually abandoned the idea (more work for me for negligible return). Right now, I'm looking at writing T20 utilities.