Re: [Freeciv] Re: FreeCiv FAQ question suggestion

[David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bobby D. Bryant wrote:

> In fact, I've been wanting to write some code to add the new game.ruleset and
> provide a [calendar] section that will let you specify the year increment 
> table
> rather than having it hard-coded.

Yes, that would be good.

> Other sections that I think should be added to the ruleset as time allows are
> [map], which would give you the option of specifying a pre-made map or else 
> just
> setting the map generation parameters, and [rules] which would specify things
> like the road movement bonus and other things that you can modify in Civ II 
> but
> not in FreeCiv.

Regarding [map], would that replace the current server options
which control the map generation, or what?  Personally I'm not sure
what should be the long-term division between what is configurable
at the server prompt, and what requires editing ruleset files.

One idea is that _everything_ should be changeable from the 
server prompt, and ruleset files would be just lists of server 
commands.  This idea has some appeal, except the current ruleset 
system is quite incompatible with this approach.  Also I'm uncertain
whether this would be feasible in terms of making the server
commands (or interpreter) rather complicated (and maybe ruleset
files more complicated too).

> However, I still haven't figured out how changes to FreeCiv get authorized,

Well, a (slightly simplistic) answer is that changes get made 
if one of the maintainers thinks its a good idea.  But a fairly 
common problem is that the maintainers don't tend to have enough 
time to spend on freeciv :-(
Anyone who would like to help improve this situation, please
volunteer to help with, or take over, the freeciv maintenance!

> I don't want to write a bunch of code that never will be used.

That is fair enough.  But I think it should not be too hard to get
reasonable changes included.  Things which may help:
 - Discuss proposed changes on freeciv-dev first;
 - If possible, submit preliminary patches to freeciv-dev for comments;
 - Try to make things easy for the maintainers!  Eg, follow the
   guidelines in http://www.freeciv.org/contribute.html
 - Persistence helps!  If a patch seems to have been ignored after 
   some time, a polite reminder/query to the maintainers may be 
   appropriate.  
 - Submit patches to the bug tracking system.  This will make it 
   harder for the patch to be forgotten or ignored.

Regards,
-- David