[Freeciv-Dev] Unit editor

[Christopher M Weber <cweber@xxxxxxx>]

Well, I said a couple of days ago that our group had a project underway
here and we would release the good news of our efforts soon.  It turns out
the news isn't so good.  

We have been working on a unit editor.  Here's what we have done/tried.

1) we have moved the unit, tech, and city specific info from *.c & *.h
formats to text files.  

2) Tonight we attempted to write-in code in civserver.c to read from these
text files the variables and attributes that the game needs.  We weren't
very successful.

Much to our dismay, we found out that the only way to call from a text
file is to load strings and integers.  In order to get everything to work
we would have to convert the string (ex. U_SETTLERS, U_ENGINEERS, etc.) to
a variable which is pluged into

enum unit_type_id {
        0 U_SETTLERS
        1 UENGINEERS
        2 ...
        .
        .       
        .

and so on.  Which can be found in unit.h

Can anyone help us out?  Is their a better way to write this so that we
can call this info from text files.  

The reason why we wanted to move to text files is so that we can then
design a program to edit it smoothly.  That program will be able to add
new units, tech, and city structures.  Is this a good idea? 

This would open the door to customizing freeciv completely.  Also they way
we have designed the call process opens the door for quake like servers.
Such that where you connect to effects how the game will be played.  Is
this a good idea?

Please comment on these ideals if you have the time.  We would really love
to her what knowledgeable programmers suggest on how to do this as well as
what you would do different or maybe just what you like.

=============================================================================
Chris Weber
cweber@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Project Listings:
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        civ-project-log@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.gac.edu/~cweber
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