Deprecated Code in many of the WGA mdules

Technical Support & Bugs
1

I am noticing this a lot with the WGA module (a lot of the old classic AH titles) in this case it not AH but a Compass Games L2 Russia Besieged.

Deprecated classes, methods, and fields in C:\Users\Don Lazov\Documents\My Games\VASSAL-Modules\Compass Games\RSBDE-v1.1.1-p02.vmod
(used by => removed item, date eligible for removal)

Inventory.Inventory => VASSAL.build.module.GameState.getPieces(), 2021-08-06
Inventory.Inventory => VASSAL.counters.PieceIterator.<init>(java.util.Enumeration, VASSAL.counters.PieceFilter), 2022-12-01
random.DiceButton => VASSAL.build.module.Chatter.getHandle(), 2021-08-06
wga.Refresher => VASSAL.build.AbstractBuildable.getBuildComponents(), 2021-08-06
wga.Refresher => VASSAL.build.module.GameState.getPieces(), 2021-08-06
wga.Refresher => VASSAL.counters.Stack.getPieces(), 2021-08-06

How does one go about fixing this?

Module page:
https://vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Russia_Besieged

Module:
RSBDE-v1.1.1-p02.vmod

1 Like
2

Hi Don,

Many of the WarGame Academy games uses custom classes - often something like a custom LookAt component (now superseded by the VASSAL Flare component). The source code for these custom components are not available (at least, I’ve not found them), which means that one cannot update them for newer VASSAL core library. One can of course try to de-compile the Java .class files, but there’s no guarantee that it will work.

Good news is that most of the custom element are not needed or has some core equivalent element.

Yours,
Christian

3

procyon works reasonably well if you need to decompile any classes to see what they do or modify them.

1 Like
4

I have been fixing these as I find them. This is some of my very early code that has been spread around a whole a lot of modules.

The Refresher is removed, it’s an early version of the standard in-game refresher. The Inventory and DiceButton I replace with the standard Vassal versions. Then remove the code for those reported and it’s good to go. Any other custom code not reported by start-up does not need to be touched.

This involves hand-editing the buildfile and removing the old-code using 7-zip. I can post detailed instructions if you want to have a go. Or I will get to it eventually.

2 Likes
5

what’s the problem? bugs about remove markers? I made a fixed vmod if you need.

6

Thanks Christian,

I’ll have to explore this .class and understand how to use it. Luckily there is only a few of these old weird AH titles that has odd hex grid numbers. I am thankful that SPI rectified that in the late 60s.

7

Brent,

Thanks for doing that. There is a lot of WGA modules for AH titles such as AK, D-Day, FE, RF and Waterloo (if memories serve me).

My suggestion is if you can, just look for all the WGA modules for these old AH titles and you should spot the same thing I see when I open them.

Its a pretty complex (to me anyway) issue to fix. If I knew how to fix it without breaking the module I would help out, but I am not confident that I’d break something else since I don’t know what all they put in that was custom or not.

I can provide a list if needed, I sent an email to Bill at WGA but he has not responded, he has also not updated his website since 2019 so there is that…

8

See the first post. The module will open but its very annoying and for a lot of non-technical folks they might not want to use a “broken” module.

9

Russia Besieged done.

1 Like
10

Thank you Brent!