Developer License request

[Chemlak]

Entity is to Gizmo as Thing is to...

A) Pick
B) Pick
C) Pick
D) Potatoe

A) Pick (noun), a tool for chipping at solid objects.
B) Pick (verb), the act of using a pick.
C) Pick (verb), to dig around for a really stubborn bogey.
D) Potatoe (noun), a mis-spelling of "potato", common amongst politicians. Also potatoe (verb), the act of inserting a toe into a pot.

 

[ShadowChemosh]

A) Pick (noun), a tool for chipping at solid objects.
B) Pick (verb), the act of using a pick.
C) Pick (verb), to dig around for a really stubborn bogey.
D) Potatoe (noun), a mis-spelling of "potato", common amongst politicians. Also potatoe (verb), the act of inserting a toe into a pot.

Funny!

Thanks Aaron. I sort of wish HL wording of something didn't change just because its "state" changes. Its very confusing when trying to learn.

 

[RavenX]

As far as I know, you can create whole new tabs if you know how to work with the XML (it is more authoring kit than editor, as you say), but you can't change the core, existing tabs.

Aaron,

This takes a little more than just familiarity with tab construction via xml. You have to be familiar enough with a game system's tags to know which ones you need to use in list tag candidate expressions for some of the tables you build as well. XML tab construction takes a while to get the hang of.

 

[rob]

I sort of wish HL wording of something didn't change just because its "state" changes. Its very confusing when trying to learn.

The naming is very intentional because the distinction between them is both significant and critical to understanding what's going on. In object-oriented languages, you have a "class" that provides the definition and an "object" that represents one instance of the class. To that same end, in HL...

"pick" is to "thing" as "object" is to "class"

and

"gizmo" is to "entity" as "object" is to "class"

There are some dramatic differences between things/picks and entities/gizmos, which is the reason they have different names to keep them entirely distinct from one another.

Hope this helps!

 

[ShadowChemosh]

The naming is very intentional because the distinction between them is both significant and critical to understanding what's going on. In object-oriented languages, you have a "class" that provides the definition and an "object" that represents one instance of the class. To that same end, in HL...

"pick" is to "thing" as "object" is to "class"

and

"gizmo" is to "entity" as "object" is to "class"

There are some dramatic differences between things/picks and entities/gizmos, which is the reason they have different names to keep them entirely distinct from one another.

Hope this helps!

I understand what you guys are going for. But maybe it's because I have heard "object", "class", and instantiate so often that they are "normal" words to me. Thing and Pick are just well NOT normal in my everyday use of Tech words. Then throw in Gizmo and Entity and I may as well be saying Rob tell me the difference between a Binding Directory and a Service Program?

I am doubtful you are use to those two types of "objects". It was much clearer when Aaron said an Entity is like a Pick in that it now has a "live" state in HL. Sometimes it takes a single sentence like that to make things clear.

I am in no way saying your idea of using unique words is bad but I think how they get "described" on the wiki is confusing sometimes. I know the next thing is but Tim we have the "Glossary of Terms". And you are right you have it but it is still written from the point of view of the programmer that "made" all this. I assume to do this day it was either yourself or Colen that wrote the wiki as it is from the point of view of a person who completely understands the HL ideas.

If you guys ever get around to updating the wiki my advice would be have terms like "gizmo" hyperlinked back to its Glossary of Terms. Also use more examples in the explanations as that can often make things much easier to understand.

As always appreciate your input Rob.

 

[rob]

Fair points. My goal with my post was to provide an example that would hopefully make sense, since I know you're a software developer by trade. I'm glad Aaron's explanation worked.

FWIW, a key reason for the different names is that everything in Hero Lab is driven by XML files. Each element name needs to be unique throughout the XML files, so having separate names for everything made that process very straightforward. If we didn't do that in the XML, things would get quite messy.

Oh, and you can blame the wiki on me, since I'm the one who wrote it.

 

[ShadowChemosh]

Fair points. My goal with my post was to provide an example that would hopefully make sense, since I know you're a software developer by trade. I'm glad Aaron's explanation worked.

Originally it took awhile to understand the difference between a Pick & Thing but now its not an issue as I think it was yourself or Colen that used the Object/Class reference. Actually funny thing is I have caught myself at work using terms like Thing to describe objects and I get "very" funny looks (worse when I use "pick).

FWIW, a key reason for the different names is that everything in Hero Lab is driven by XML files. Each element name needs to be unique throughout the XML files, so having separate names for everything made that process very straightforward. If we didn't do that in the XML, things would get quite messy.

*cough* namespaces *cough*! That of course is my smartass answer I also always give Colen. So see once that is added to HL SO many issues go away.

Oh, and you can blame the wiki on me, since I'm the one who wrote it.

Yea I figured it came from the I like these really fun & easy Mensa games person!

We do appreciate the wiki and glad it exists. Its also helpful to have Savage Worlds be open source so we can see all its fun bits. So please don't take it the wrong way when I make a jab at the wiki. It is just blowing off a little steam at having to keep so many different languages strait in my head.

To show it's not just HL I was "letting off steam" about on DB2 SQL I can use '2014-12-10' to compare to a date data type but in oracle SQL I have to use to_date('2014-12-10' ,'yyyy-mm-dd'). Ug cause that is really NICE and short to type in Oracle!

 

[rob]

Actually funny thing is I have caught myself at work using terms like Thing to describe objects and I get "very" funny looks (worse when I use "pick).

LOL!

*cough* namespaces *cough*! That of course is my smartass answer I also always give Colen. So see once that is added to HL SO many issues go away.

Remember that we started on Hero Lab *TEN* years ago. Lots has changed and evolved over that time.

We do appreciate the wiki and glad it exists. Its also helpful to have Savage Worlds be open source so we can see all its fun bits. So please don't take it the wrong way when I make a jab at the wiki. It is just blowing off a little steam at having to keep so many different languages strait in my head.

No problem. If I had infinite time, I would gladly rework the wiki with the benefit of hindsight. Alas, that's not a realistic option right now. So jabs are perfectly warranted.

To show it's not just HL I was "letting off steam" about on DB2 SQL I can use '2014-12-10' to compare to a date data type but in oracle SQL I have to use to_date('2014-12-10' ,'yyyy-mm-dd'). Ug cause that is really NICE and short to type in Oracle!

I feel that pain, too. We use SQL Server for the Realm Works server and Firebird for the desktop client. Firebird is a 100% clone of Oracle from a syntactic standpoint. So the vagaries of Oracle are periodically making life unpleasant for me as well.

P.S. I had to delete your assorted emoticons to include my own. Apparently, our forums have a hard limit of four emoticons in any post. <sigh>