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An Introduction to DMOD Making

April 17th 2009, 10:25 AM
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metatarasal
Bard He/Him Netherlands
I object 
With a file this big there are inevitably going to be errors, even after proofreading. So yet another version of this file is coming. I already made quite an extensive list of (mostly small) fixes I'll implement for the next version, but I would love some feedback from the community as well.

If you already posted a comment in the news thread or wrote a review: I read it all, so whatever you said will be taken into consideration. I might not agree, but I will take it into consideration...

So if you know anything that should be improved, let me know. I'm not going to add large pieces of text for this version as I think the file is heavy enough as it is right now. But if you spotted something you think is wrong or unclear let me know!

(Also, if you think something should be added let me know. It might not make it into this version, but it will be taken into consideration for the future.)
December 1st 2009, 09:53 PM
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jakie
Peasant He/Him
 
i want to make a trader but i copied you script and it does not work
December 2nd 2009, 01:35 AM
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Quiztis
Peasant He/Him Sweden bloop
Life? What's that? Can I download it?! 
Do not copy from the pdf. Some of the symbols will be messed up like the ".
December 2nd 2009, 06:09 AM
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metatarasal
Bard He/Him Netherlands
I object 
Bleh. You're right, copying doesn't seem to work properly. Maybe I should release the file in .doc format as well to help with copying? I like to use .pdf because it reads easily.

Stupid acrobat...
December 2nd 2009, 08:14 AM
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DaVince
Peasant He/Him Netherlands
Olde Time Dinkere 
Actually, MS Word makes those characters into special ones. So blame Word, not Adobe.
December 2nd 2009, 08:38 AM
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metatarasal
Bard He/Him Netherlands
I object 
If it is MS word that changes the characters how come the characters are changed when copying from a pdf to notepad? You'd expect the characters to change when copying from MS Word, which they don't.
December 2nd 2009, 08:50 AM
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DaVince
Peasant He/Him Netherlands
Olde Time Dinkere 
That's interesting. Try typing two ""'s in Word and you'll see them auto-change, this is probably how it exports the characters to a PDF too once saved.

It's kind of like some Wordpress blogs that automatically parse such characters into the more stylish but less practical ones.
December 2nd 2009, 02:05 PM
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metatarasal
Bard He/Him Netherlands
I object 
Actually I used OpenOffice.org, not MS Word to create the PDF.

But whatever is causing it, it works if you copy from MS word, it doesn't work if you copy from PDF and if you convert a PDF back to MS word it will work again. (PDF -> Word gives a horrible look. Guess I'll have to find that old OpenOffice file again...)

Anyway, is it possible to host two downloads for one file? One .doc file for copying and one .pdf file for viewing? Or should I consider a different format entirely?
December 2nd 2009, 02:26 PM
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iplaydink
Peasant He/Him Sweden
Hmm.. 
I think you only sohuld have .doc as the pdf files is really irritating due the " error, it took some time for me to understand what was wrong when I started making dmods...
December 2nd 2009, 02:40 PM
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MsDink
Peasant She/Her New Zealand
Tag - Umm.. tag, you're it? 
Geesh u are welcome to send me word file copy and I will pdf it from our printer so it will be exactly as you need it to look - if u want ) Then I can send it back to u Meta to upload it
December 2nd 2009, 03:24 PM
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DaVince
Peasant He/Him Netherlands
Olde Time Dinkere 
OOo, huh? If it's Linux, you could use CUPS to "print" to PDF and it should keep the proper quotes, then.
December 2nd 2009, 04:14 PM
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metatarasal
Bard He/Him Netherlands
I object 
Yes it's made in linux. Unfortunately I seem to have lost the original .odt file for the latest version of the tutorial. I would have to rewrite v1.02 to (roughly) match v1.03 again (I do have a list with most of the changes somewhere)

Also I've recently replaced my HD and I haven't yet installed linux on the new one so I'll have to see if that works later... Also I'm a total noob at using linux.
December 2nd 2009, 04:27 PM
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DaVince
Peasant He/Him Netherlands
Olde Time Dinkere 
Don't worry, exporting to PDF through the print dialog is just that easy.

As for restoring your doc, you could just take the PDF from 1.3, copy and paste a bunch and then autoreplace all the weird characters with standard ones. Saves some effort.
December 4th 2009, 05:03 AM
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MsDink
Peasant She/Her New Zealand
Tag - Umm.. tag, you're it? 
does it matter what editor u use - or is windinkedit or windinkedit+ (or whatever) specific for how u do things - if so can we have an updated current one??

Us newbies need specifics cause if the script we are copying /learning from doesnt have the exact symbols we need to use on it - how are we supposed to know any better?

Really looking forward to this file and hope its baby steps if it really is for the beginner.
December 8th 2009, 11:03 AM
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metatarasal
Bard He/Him Netherlands
I object 
CUPS is easy!? I wouldn't want to see a hard linux program then. It took me an hour or so to get it set up (Something to do with permissions or something that CUPS didn't give itself.)

Also, the PDF as printed by CUPS has exactly the same problem as the PDF created directly OpenOffice: Pasting from it doesn't work properly. Maybe I'll try to save it as a .doc file and try to let adobe acrobat make the pdf...
December 8th 2009, 11:11 AM
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metatarasal
Bard He/Him Netherlands
I object 
@MsDinkalot:

It is specific for WinDinkEdit, though you can also use it for WinDinkEdit plus. The scripting part is more general, it doesn't really matter what editor you're using.

And the PDF has the 'correct' symbols, but when copying directly to a .c script the symbols are changed. (Or perhaps they were like that all the time, but didn't look like that? I'm not sure really)
If you copy to a .txt file the symbols look exactly as they have to, but if you copy to a .c file the format changes for some mysterious reason.

EDIT: Using word gives exactly the same problems, guess a version made in word is out of the question as well then...

EDIT2: Yay me! I solved the problem, I managed to replace the glyphed quotation marks in OpenOffice with typewriter quotes (from “this” to "this"), and now you can copy safely once more!

EDIT3: Well, if there aren't anymore of these nasty copy-paste bugs around. And after I submit the updated version... Obviously...
December 8th 2009, 01:41 PM
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DaVince
Peasant He/Him Netherlands
Olde Time Dinkere 
By "CUPS is easy" I mean that the print dialog is simple, straightforward and allows you to export right to PDF from the box. You don't even need to have a printer installed.

In the end, CUPS refers to the background printing system, anyway. That usually just works and adding printers should be straightforward too if your printer is supported.

Sounds like OpenOffice converts your characters after all, anyway, or it does something special to paste the 'regular' characters anywhere else.

Edit: I wonder why TDN isn't using UTF-8 encoding for its pages... That would certainly allow a web page to show any and all characters properly and not some weird "â€" shoot.