<snip> > > > > If it's just setup problems this information may help, > > > > http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.games.tp.general/72 > > > > > > > > Lee is working on making the server easier to setup. > > Very useful. That page needs to made into a proper page. > > > We welcome bug reports, information, etc about how hard it was to get > > going. > > To be frank - I found it a PITA. Now I to be honest a lot of this info > I have since found, but it is scattered - so it's not easy. So at this > point I'm going to be a real critical bastard.
Okay, I guess the next question is what does this apply to? Getting the tpclient-pywx stable release? Getting the tpcient-pywx development release? Getting the tpserver-cpp stable release? Getting the tpserver-cpp development release? > So some things I'd like to see/see improved: > * A quick overview of how to set things up > - It would be nice to have every step from the first apt-get/yum etc to > entering data for the first turn. Currently it stops at running the > server. I'm assuming this only refers to setting up a server? > * Dependencies - Both distro and TP related ones > - The Python modules needed aren't always easy to figure out since > normally you find yourself staring at a stack trace, and need to work > out which python-X lib you need to install. I'm guessing this applies to the client? The following URL should list everything you need for the stable version of the client, http://www.thousandparsec.net/tp/gettingstarted.php#gamer I've yet to write a "Getting Started" for developers. The tpclient-pywx should be checking for all it's required dependencies in the requirements.py. If you got a traceback instead of an informative message, could you please post a bug report? > - The C++ ones are better, at least the configure ones are meaningful > -> However it would be nice if ALL the dependencies where > checked > before it barfed - a nice "You are missing the following libs: > libfoo (>2.3) > libbar > ... > This is a general autoconf bitch however - it is tough to get > it all > right. I don't think you can even do this with autoconf? > * More dependencies: The webpage should list the exact list of modules > one needs to check out of darcs[2], and what order they need to be > built/installed. This will be in the developers getting started when it is actually written. > * Which server and client versions we should use... Python or CPP? > Which is easiest to get going etc? Which works. The Python server will very soon become the easiest to setup and install (as it will be packaged with a setup wizard). However at the moment it is in a state of flux as I added SQLite support a fix a few other problems. I agree that the C++ server needs better information about setup. > * Once a server is installed, tpserver-cpp should just work. > Having to set up a config file (by default in /etc/... too!) is > annoying. The supplied config file should be ready to go. What should the default config file do? There are currently two possible rulesets that could be running. > Even better would be a quick start in the client to launch the server > with the appropriate parameters. This is coming when tpserver-py is integrated into tpclient-pywx. > * More verbosity about the basic state of the server (a status command > maybe?). So I can start the server and it tell me what is going on. > (And it took me a while to figure out I could type commands to the > server at the console...) A complete list of commands, and complete > interactive help too (help game should list all the game commands). > > Positives: > There is a lot of documentation on the website, which is _Very_ nice. > the main problem I think is organisation - most of the info is there, > just not in an easily digestable format. Can you point out where > Biggest problem so far: > Sourceforge bug tracker is the worst bug tracking system I've ever > used. The reason we use the SF bug tracker, - Bugzilla and Request Tracker are extremely heavy and very complicated. - It increases our activity counter on SF making us more visible. > - Scanning existing bugs is a PITA for non-devs[3] I don't find this a problem? I can quickly filter the bugs into different sections and filter on keywords. What exactly is missing for scanning existing bugs? > - It timed out when trying to upload a core file for a bug (and the > whole bug was not reported!) - fortunately I was patient enough to file > it again without the core dump. I find this a little unusual. How big is your coredump? I've attached files of about 2mb to a bug report fine. > - Email notifications are almost impossible to read. I agree the Email notifications are pretty crappy. (The secret is that changes have a '>' in front of them.) > So another recommendation I'd have is _please_ find another BTS. Do you have any other suggestions? Bugzilla and RT both need full time keepers and have huge instruction manuals (I've used both and found the extra features pointless most of the time). Despite good reports I have also found trac to be totally useless. gnats is to use as well. Any other suggestions? Simplicity is the key. > Otherwise I'm likely to use the mailing list for bug reports. <snip> > > We would ultimately like it to be a 2-3 step process to get everything > > going. > > A while yet - however it may be worth looking at an automatic check out > of required client and server modules, with an 'install' script - of > course when it fails... it will fail terribly. It is a lot of work, so > for now maybe the best thing to do will be to make the required info > easier to find for newbies. We currently have "setup" and "update" scripts in the scratchpad repository. It might not be has hard as it sounds. > Regards, > nash > > [2] As a semi-aside, getting the joy of using another RCS isn't a great > thing, especially as the darcs home page is pretty poor for info - until > you use google to search it... Not sure you guys can fix that however. There is a copy of the darcs book in the scratchpad repository. I guess we should link to it somewhere. > [3] And from past experience, devs too. Tim Ansell _______________________________________________ tp-devel mailing list [email protected] http://www.thousandparsec.net/tp/mailman.php/listinfo/tp-devel
