Web-based Automatic Sector Data / Map pdf Generator
- Thread starter Mickazoid
- Start date
Rick Baumhauer
SOC-5
mickazoid - first, thanks for all the work you've put into this! It's amazing what emulating the "LBB style" can do for the endless strings of data in the bare .sec/etc. files. The Marches PDF is remarkable by itself, but the ability to apply a similar treatment to any existing sector, or generate from scratch, is almost mind-boggling.
That said, I was wondering if you might provide a bit more "hand-holding" on the install process. I've spent the last 20 years moving through DOS/Amiga/Windows, and switched to the Mac in 2006. While I am pretty comfortable, I won't claim to have a lot of experience with the UNIX underpinnings, and while I believe that I followed the instructions, there were a couple bits that had me scratching my head.
Specifically, I'm not sure exactly where the output folder (/sectors/autogen) is supposed to be created. I've tried a couple of locations, but don't know if I've gotten it right. The other issue, perhaps connected, is that I am getting a "command not found" whenever pdftk is called (lines 810, 830, etc). I installed the Mac OS X package that was on PDFHacks, and it appears to have installed correctly - all of the files are where they are supposed to be. It said that it was for OS X 10.3 only, but I assumed that just meant it wouldn't work with 10.2 or earlier.
As I said, I'm not sure if both issues are related - I'm not sure if the pdftk error is occurring because my output folder isn't in the right place, or if it isn't finding the installed file properly, or if I'm missing something else entirely.
Also, the PDF-API2 install wasn't straightforward - I followed the instructions that were included with it, but ran into permissions issues until I ran the install with sudo, so I'm not entirely sure if the process completed properly. I believe it did, but it's very difficult to know for sure, since the install process goes by very quickly. It appears that everything ended up in /Library/Perl/5.8.6/PDF, so that appears correct.
Thanks in advance for any pointers you can give me, and thanks again for all the effort you've already put into this project. This is on a Core Duo iMac, by the way - congratulations on your new MacBook Pro!
Rick
That said, I was wondering if you might provide a bit more "hand-holding" on the install process. I've spent the last 20 years moving through DOS/Amiga/Windows, and switched to the Mac in 2006. While I am pretty comfortable, I won't claim to have a lot of experience with the UNIX underpinnings, and while I believe that I followed the instructions, there were a couple bits that had me scratching my head.
Specifically, I'm not sure exactly where the output folder (/sectors/autogen) is supposed to be created. I've tried a couple of locations, but don't know if I've gotten it right. The other issue, perhaps connected, is that I am getting a "command not found" whenever pdftk is called (lines 810, 830, etc). I installed the Mac OS X package that was on PDFHacks, and it appears to have installed correctly - all of the files are where they are supposed to be. It said that it was for OS X 10.3 only, but I assumed that just meant it wouldn't work with 10.2 or earlier.
As I said, I'm not sure if both issues are related - I'm not sure if the pdftk error is occurring because my output folder isn't in the right place, or if it isn't finding the installed file properly, or if I'm missing something else entirely.
Also, the PDF-API2 install wasn't straightforward - I followed the instructions that were included with it, but ran into permissions issues until I ran the install with sudo, so I'm not entirely sure if the process completed properly. I believe it did, but it's very difficult to know for sure, since the install process goes by very quickly. It appears that everything ended up in /Library/Perl/5.8.6/PDF, so that appears correct.
Thanks in advance for any pointers you can give me, and thanks again for all the effort you've already put into this project. This is on a Core Duo iMac, by the way - congratulations on your new MacBook Pro!
Rick
Rick - the path '/sectors/autogen' is off the root. Any path beginning with a slash implies it is off the root. In other words:
Macintosh HD/sectors/autogen
RE pdftk: pdftk's working fine on my Mac OSX 10.4.8 / Intel Core Duo, with a fresh install... but it does crash occasionally when generating a 'full' LBB (about once every 5 times, without any apparent relationship to the data in the sector in question).
This is likely because the pdftk MacOSX compiled binary I linked to is not an intel build yet and is not clearing its' memory usage correctly. And yes, you may need to use sudo to install it properly. I may do a new compiled build myself, but it's a tough program to bundle due to the dependencies.
Also, your inability to run pdftk from the script is because you need to make sure that wherever pdftk is installed, that that path is in your environment. If pdftk was installed into /usr/bin, you'll be fine. If it's in /usr/local/bin, you'll need to add that to your ~/.profile file (the ~ means it's in your user's 'home' folder) like so:
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH</pre>[/QUOTE]Keep me posted on your progress! I'm grateful for your compliments and please let me know if you have any features or enhancements you'd like me to code.
Macintosh HD/sectors/autogen
RE pdftk: pdftk's working fine on my Mac OSX 10.4.8 / Intel Core Duo, with a fresh install... but it does crash occasionally when generating a 'full' LBB (about once every 5 times, without any apparent relationship to the data in the sector in question).
This is likely because the pdftk MacOSX compiled binary I linked to is not an intel build yet and is not clearing its' memory usage correctly. And yes, you may need to use sudo to install it properly. I may do a new compiled build myself, but it's a tough program to bundle due to the dependencies.
Also, your inability to run pdftk from the script is because you need to make sure that wherever pdftk is installed, that that path is in your environment. If pdftk was installed into /usr/bin, you'll be fine. If it's in /usr/local/bin, you'll need to add that to your ~/.profile file (the ~ means it's in your user's 'home' folder) like so:
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH</pre>[/QUOTE]Keep me posted on your progress! I'm grateful for your compliments and please let me know if you have any features or enhancements you'd like me to code.
Rick Baumhauer
SOC-5
Micki - thanks! That cleared things up.
I figured that the new folders were supposed to be in the root, but wasn't sure, since I couldn't get any output because of the PDFTK issue. As you suspected, PDFTK was installed in /usr/local/bin/, so adding that to the PATH did the trick.
Am I right in surmising that all of the "switches" have to be provided, even if you're working from a pre-existing SEC file? And that, other than the name of the sector, the other data (density and tech) are ignored if working with an existing SEC file? That seems to be how it worked in my first test, with Reft Sector, but just want to make sure.
Thanks again!
Rick
I figured that the new folders were supposed to be in the root, but wasn't sure, since I couldn't get any output because of the PDFTK issue. As you suspected, PDFTK was installed in /usr/local/bin/, so adding that to the PATH did the trick.
Am I right in surmising that all of the "switches" have to be provided, even if you're working from a pre-existing SEC file? And that, other than the name of the sector, the other data (density and tech) are ignored if working with an existing SEC file? That seems to be how it worked in my first test, with Reft Sector, but just want to make sure.
Thanks again!
Rick
yes. You must use proper syntax and no params are optional, except the last two (sector filename and regen options), which are not needed when you're generating a new sector from scratch.
When generating a pre-existing sector, just put 1 where density and tech are (since they are, of course, already generated). The other params (name, full/brief, sectorfile name, regen options) are required.
Micki
When generating a pre-existing sector, just put 1 where density and tech are (since they are, of course, already generated). The other params (name, full/brief, sectorfile name, regen options) are required.
Micki
Has there been any progress on incorporating the plantary and system maps like the screen shots from the first few pages of this thread?
I'm currently using this:
http://micki001.cnc.net/trav/SpinwardMarches.pdf
[This is absolutely stunning, by the way...]
Just a suggestion for usability: you need an index for the tome and/or you need to break the thing up into seperate PDF's by subsector. Finding an entry on a particular world is a bear. Alphabetizing them might help, too.
I'm currently using this:
http://micki001.cnc.net/trav/SpinwardMarches.pdf
[This is absolutely stunning, by the way...]
Just a suggestion for usability: you need an index for the tome and/or you need to break the thing up into seperate PDF's by subsector. Finding an entry on a particular world is a bear. Alphabetizing them might help, too.
Glad you like the Spinward Marches book - it's fun to see how the software can be helpful to folks.
You can use your pdf browser's 'search' field to quickly find any and all worlds, so that should go a long way towards ameliorating your index needs. At this point, autogenerating an Index for each LBB is not going to happen anytime soon (since the entire document is automatically generated and I don't do any custom stuff to the text currently, that's a real challenge). There's a way I might be able to do a 'worlds' index - I'll give it some thought and look for 'indexing' software to base it on.
Currently the worlds are listed numerically by XXYY coordinates in the sector, which is the most useful output that I can think of since the names are not technically required to be unique (but of course sector coordinates are).
As far as incorporating per-world maps and stuff, no progress to report there - but I wasn't planning that kind of expansion in the near-term anyway. I've made some progress in that regard, but nothing to make public
You can use your pdf browser's 'search' field to quickly find any and all worlds, so that should go a long way towards ameliorating your index needs. At this point, autogenerating an Index for each LBB is not going to happen anytime soon (since the entire document is automatically generated and I don't do any custom stuff to the text currently, that's a real challenge). There's a way I might be able to do a 'worlds' index - I'll give it some thought and look for 'indexing' software to base it on.
Currently the worlds are listed numerically by XXYY coordinates in the sector, which is the most useful output that I can think of since the names are not technically required to be unique (but of course sector coordinates are).
As far as incorporating per-world maps and stuff, no progress to report there - but I wasn't planning that kind of expansion in the near-term anyway. I've made some progress in that regard, but nothing to make public
Border Reiver
SOC-14 1K
Well that took about 5 mins. One stable script up and running, now to fiddle with the parameters.
Thanks Mikki.
Thanks Mikki.
Mickazoid:
I realize you're female and all, but ... you da man. I just registered here to log in and say that.
And to point out some Book 7 funniness. I don't have the machine for running the scripts, I'm just looking at the 1218p Spinward Marches pdf. If your script is using Merchant Prince rules to generate the generic cargo data, I think it might be looking for pop<=4 rather than pop<=3 for Lo worlds. Also, when calculating the price, it looks like it's giving Po worlds a +1000 modifier rather than -1000.
I'm a total Traveller newbie, so if these are Book 7 errata, then... nevermind!
I realize you're female and all, but ... you da man. I just registered here to log in and say that.
And to point out some Book 7 funniness. I don't have the machine for running the scripts, I'm just looking at the 1218p Spinward Marches pdf. If your script is using Merchant Prince rules to generate the generic cargo data, I think it might be looking for pop<=4 rather than pop<=3 for Lo worlds. Also, when calculating the price, it looks like it's giving Po worlds a +1000 modifier rather than -1000.
I'm a total Traveller newbie, so if these are Book 7 errata, then... nevermind!
Kamwai:
Thanks for the very very kind wishes - I take your words as a complete compliment
As far as your formula corrections - thanks a ton, I'll examine the code and ensure those conditions are applied appropriately.
Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your acknowledgment, your critical eye and your kind words!
Thanks for the very very kind wishes - I take your words as a complete compliment
As far as your formula corrections - thanks a ton, I'll examine the code and ensure those conditions are applied appropriately.
Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your acknowledgment, your critical eye and your kind words!
FlightCommanderSolitude
SOC-13
Hey mickazoid, I took a look at my trade code, and Kamwai is correct on both points. To fix:
1. In World.pm, there's a function "is_lo"; you'll see the test in there, and the fix should be obvious: change the 3 to a 4.
2 In Trade.pm, in the __DATA__ section at the tail of the file, there's a line that begins, "Ag,-1;As,-1;..." Read along until you find, "Po,+1" and change it to "Po,-1".
That should do it! A big THANKS to Kamwai for noticing these problems; I doubt I ever would have!
1. In World.pm, there's a function "is_lo"; you'll see the test in there, and the fix should be obvious: change the 3 to a 4.
2 In Trade.pm, in the __DATA__ section at the tail of the file, there's a line that begins, "Ag,-1;As,-1;..." Read along until you find, "Po,+1" and change it to "Po,-1".
That should do it! A big THANKS to Kamwai for noticing these problems; I doubt I ever would have!
Y'welcome.
I was using Mickazoid's Spinward Marches pdf to check my Excel calculations of generic trade costs. After a few subsectors, I figured out the discrepancies.
Already, it'll figure out the best place to sell within range. If given location and UPP data for two planets, it'll spit out the cost, price, profit, and distance. What I'm trying to do now is get it to say, "OK, assuming this huge list of worlds, here are the top earning round-trips for your jump number."
I've noticed an interesting one. Glisten & Sorel, just one parsec apart. You have to go empty from Sorel to Glisten, because of the tech level difference. But the return trip profits 20,500 base per ton - ten months of common carriage done in a single jump!
Plus, you get to spend your easy money on a Tech-15 world!
