jontukontar

Updates:

• Modified anathemaTool.sh to allow in-place validation of files and fixed an issue with the find command.
• Added 90% of Lunar charm trees (less Wits and "Lunar Hero Style")
• Made various alterations to charms.dtd and charmreview-xmlns.xsl .
• Added more information about plugin-fragment.xml to plug-in documentation project.

In Progress:

• Lunar plug-in:
• Finishing up coding for remainder of Lunar charms.
• Read through Lunar charms and add "Coding" comments to charms when necessary.
• Alter plugin-fragment.xml to incorporate file and directory listings for Lunar charm files.
• Alter language property files for new charm tree.
• Add charm XML information to plug-in documentation project.

The first list is what I've been up to in the last couple of weeks. I've got quite a bit of XML coding done for the new plug-in. During this process, I've had to update various supporting files to allow things that are done with charms in the Lunars book. Charms.dtd was updated to allow for the use of "Attribute Excellencies" and I fixed a minor error with the default speed for charm based attacks. Charmreview-xmlns.xsl was updated to properly display "Excellencies", number of required "Excellencies" and I've added in proper support for the "dramatic action" and "long ticks" based charms. (Previously, neither of these were being displayed at all.)

All this coding has reminded me of a few things that I've added to my charms as a "safety net" that need to be properly documented when I describe charm XML on the documentation project. In specific, Anathema doesn't display the following in the charm viewer:

<charmtype type="Simple">
<special turntype="DramaticAction" />
</charmtype>

If you don't include both speed and defense numbers (these can be the default speed="6" defense="-1"). This is something that I'd forgotten about because my charms.dtd file was "shielding" me from this issue. Given this, I've went back through all my charms and have updated them so that they can be used without the DTD. I've also eliminated some <special /> tags from Simple charms that just listed the default values and nothing else (they were superfluous).

In the second list, both of the charm trees sould be fairly easy to convert to XML because they are both relatively small. The rest is going to take some time.

PS. Does anyone have any thoughts on what I've done thus far for plug-in documentation? See Anathema Development for link.

According to my new tool, I've made some mistakes in both my DTD and some of the Sidereals XML.  The DTD errors are related to not having registered charm id's as an ID, as defined in a DTD, and I also left out "StealthExcellency" as an entity.  I also had some minor typo's in the Melee and Ride Sidereal trees, which have now been fixed.

The final remaining problem is related to the structure of the XML and is not fixable by me.  This is caused by the differing layouts between XML files.  In some, the <combo /> element comes before <duration /> but in others it is different.  In order to make this DTD work for most Anathema XML files, I have to leave it as it currently is.

What this means is that if you use the command detailed in my previous post and see errors related to the DTD not being "determinist", you can safely ignore it.

Now to incorporate it into anathemaTool.sh.

Update:  I spoke too soon, after testing my other plug-ins, I've found a few more errors.

Well, my books have finally arrived and I save $40 USD off cover price (total). Right now, I’m skimming through XML Primer Plus to see if there is anything of particular note before going back through it in more detail. Thus far, I have seen that there are a couple of things that I’ve learned: you can have “conditional” statements in a DTD, it is not possible with XPath 1.0 to create your own functions, and that there is a “Native XML Database” (aka NXD) called Xindice (it’s pronounced in a very odd fashion). BTW: This book is huge and much better than the Microsoft Press one that preceded it.

Apparently, there are some software pieces that will convert DTD's into various other validation schemes including XML Schema and Relax NG.  I happened to be perusing the Relax NG site and found one called Trang.  It works like a charm.  Now to figure out why it doesn't like the W3.org's XML namespace...

My week, thus far, in review:

• DTD vs. XML Schema
• DTD's easy to read, write, and understand.  XML Schema's are none of the above (which explains Relax NG).
• XML Schema's have more flexibility in validating data and they are well-formed XML.
• DTD's have either CDATA or specified data.
• CDATA, could be anything.
• Or you have to make a specific list to validate against (which can get quite long).
• You can create patterns within XML Schemas. (# = number)
  
• ISBN = #-####-####-#
• PH# = #-###-###-####

I have realized that I need a better book, if I continue to do XML Schema's.  My current book XML Step by Step, 2nd Edition sucks, in regards to most XML things.  Which stands to reason when you notice that it is by Microsoft Press.  Half the book is about XML "data binding", a MS specific version of XSL, 25% of the book is CSS, and the remainder is a mix of XML, DTD, XSD and XSL.  Consider space requirements, none of the important topics are covered in any great depth.  Which makes online resources a must but I haven't found a good source yet.

I fixed the WIFI connectivity between my MacBook and my Belkin router.  Apple issued a patch to fix WEP last month which broke WPA encryption to my access point.  On a lark, I changed my router from WPA-TKIP to "WPA/WPA2" and it now works.  I think I'm going to send a letter asking Belkin what is different between the two modes.

Yesterday, I received a 320Gb "My Book" by Western Digital.  I planned to use this to archive some large ISO's that were talking up 99Gb of space on my HD.  I ran into a problem copying the files off, though, which almost caused me to return the device.  This morning I had an epiphany that FAT had a 2Gb file size limit and wondered if FAT32 had a similiar limit.  It did (4Gb), which perfectly explains my problems moving over some of my ISO files.  A reformat to NTFS and 2 hours later, it is a done deal.

Activision just released some new content for Marvel Ultimate Alliance on Xbox 360, which has incited me to play that again.  Hopefully, I will be able to finish the game this time.  Previously, there was a "progression break" which prevented me from getting to the end.

I have, yet again, been hit with the reality that customer service jobs are terribly annoying.  Especially, when you get a person who insists on cover the same subject 3 dozen times (over 3+ hours).  Fortunately, I wasn't at work today when he came back!

Hopefully, the weather will clear in my part of the world so that I can go roller blading.  I just replaced my wheels and bearings and really want to get my money's worth out of them.