(Reposted) Non-PDF Formats for RPG's

[Rob Lang]

[Zzarchov]

Oh, I was specifically using that point as an example of the problems with downloading Mono being an issue. An example of absurdity if you will.

Mono is not something you would download to run Piecemeal anymore than Adobe Acrobat is something you would download just to open an RPG in PDF format. Mono is default installed with many linux distributions just for that reason. Its so incredibly usefu in a wide variety of applications. The mono project is equally as trusted a source as Adobe, as even adobe doesn't come standard on PC's (I could be wrong, but it didnt use to)

unforunately in terms of Java, the MDI interface (programming issue) means it wouldn't run on a Java virtual machine as is (hence stuck with mono). I've done a partial translation, but working around that issue has me stumped (unless I redo it for java from scratch).

As to the PDF, it is something I am tinkering but Im not too terribly enthused by it unless I see a need to make a nice hardcover print copy. Honestly it very much feels like turning a book into a movie by having the camera take pictures of the pages as you turn them so the audience can read along. A poor use of a computers power.

That said, I do plan to have on out by v1.0 even if just so I can print a copy to hard cover and throw it on my gaming shelf.

[Kinslayer]

I do have Mono (as Ubuntu SE uses Tomboy notes), but Piecemeal still just won't run. And for the record, Acrobat Reader (or any other Adobe product) isn't needed for PDF's. Evince handles them just fine on my computer. I'm not insulted by any of this, just very disappointed. As I said, I am looking forward to reading Piecemeal. As it is now, however, I am completely unable to do so.

[Zzarchov]

I've heard this from a few people, but scattered. I would love any feedback you could give me for what exactly is keeping it from working.

I borrowed my friends e-book with red hat on it, this is what I got through mono



so it seems to work there, but that is a different distro, what does yours load like?

There are some format quirks (like drop down list text being white on white) but it does seem to function on at least that one machine, I'd love more info so I can try to work around it however.

[Kinslayer]

It doesn't look like anything. It just won't load. I download the zip, extract the executable, click on it, and nothing. I checked it with both my laptop and server, so it isn't a quirk of the hardware architecture. I simply cannot look at Piecemeal. The existence of Wine, Boot Camp, or various virtualisation schemes does not mean that .exe files are designed to be Windows-only files, intentionally or otherwise. Ultimately it is your game, and you can do whatever you want with it. I'm just saying that I'm in that segment of the population that cannot play your game, despite wanting to do so.

[Zzarchov]

I'd like to point out the flaw in that argument.

that screenshot is from a Linux box.

In this case, you run the program through mono, much as you would run a pdf through a pdf viewer program or a Java applet through the java virtual machine. You can set this up to be automatic, if not you go in through mono and run the program (the command line if you are using such a method is "mono piecemeal.exe")

So I can understand if there legitamately difficulties or errors with the program in linux. But every linux box I've ran it on it loads fine, making it hard to figure out why it doesn't load for some.