Hello,
I ran into a ‘bug’ and a strange thing with the new Turn tracker.
First the ‘bug’ : If the mouse is moved even 1 pixel between the press of the mouse button and its release (when clicking on - + to change turns) the click is not taken into account. I would have thought that as long as the mouse is still on the + or - button when the mouse button is depressed, it would work. But not. I would qualify this as a bug when compared to how buttons usually work in GUI.
Now the strange thing… (If I completely missed something important about the way it was meant to used and thus appear to be a complete fool, I will gladly accept any guidance and see the light)
To illustrate my (oh damn too long) explanation I devised a v2.9.9 test mod including the 1.8 TurnTracker component and a v3.0.x test mod using the included TurnTracker : aradiel.free.fr/vassal/TimeDisplay30).
What I want to do is to have the following structure defined as if it was in v3.0.x :
The list is formatted this way :
Level x : level of the item
“name” : Name of the item
(type) : type of the item
[content] : content of the list
Property : name of the global property set by this item
Time (turn tracker name)
Level 1 : “Year” (list) [1939,…,1945]
Property = Year
–Level 2 : “Month” (list) [January,…,December]
–Property = Month
----Level 3 : “Production” (list with 1 item) [Production]
----Property = Time_MonthPhase
------Level 4 : “Replacements” (list with 1 item) [Replacements]
------Property = Time_MonthSubPhase
--------Level 5 : empty name (list with 1 item) [ ]
--------Property = Time_TurnPhase
------Level 4 : “Reinforcements” (list with 1 item) [Reinforcements]
------Property = Time_MonthSubPhase
--------Level 5 : empty name (list with 1 item) [ ]
--------Property = Time_TurnPhase
----Level 3 : “Fortnights” (list) [Fortnight 1, Fortnight 2]
----Property = Time_MonthPhase
------Level 4 : “Weather Check” (list with 1 item) [Weather]
------Property = Time_MonthSubPhase
--------Level 5 : empty name (list with 1 item) [ ]
--------Property = Time_TurnPhase
------Level 4 : “Player turns” (list) [Allies, Axis]
------Property = Time_MonthSubPhase
--------Level 5 : “Turn Phases” (list) [Command Phase,…,Politics Phase]
--------Property = Time_TurnPhase
You’ll notice 3 “empty name” level 5 items under Replacements, Reinforcements and Weather. Those List items include a lone empty item. The net effect is that when I display in a Textlabel prototype the property linked to the level 5 list value, I don’t get the name of the property displayed instead of it content when it’s not defined.
The sequence displayed in the log window would be:
- 1939 January Production Reinforcements
- 1939 January Fortnight 1 Weather
- 1939 January Fortnight 1 Allies Command Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 1 Allies Movement Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 1 Allies Combat Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 1 Allies Blitz Movement Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 1 Allies Blitz Combat Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 1 Allies Supply Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 1 Allies Politics Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 1 Axis Command Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 1 Axis Movement Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 1 Axis Combat Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 1 Axis Blitz Movement Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 1 Axis Blitz Combat Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 1 Axis Supply Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 1 Axis Politics Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 2 Weather
- 1939 January Fortnight 2 Allies Command Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 2 Allies Movement Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 2 Allies Combat Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 2 Allies Blitz Movement Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 2 Allies Blitz Combat Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 2 Allies Supply Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 2 Allies Politics Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 2 Axis Command Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 2 Axis Movement Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 2 Axis Combat Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 2 Axis Blitz Movement Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 2 Axis Blitz Combat Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 2 Axis Supply Phase
- 1939 January Fortnight 2 Axis Politics Phase
- 1939 February Production Replacements
and so on
Then to checked wether Global Properties are properly set and updated I use a piece with 5 text labels, one for each level.
With v2.9.9, the properties are properly set and updated as I advance in the Turn Tracker sequence.
In v3.0.x, properties for levels 3, 4 & 5 are not properly set in that only the last Level 3 (Fortnights / Time_MonthPhase property), the last Level 4 (Player turns / Time_MonthSubPhase property) and the last level 5 (Turn Phases / Time_TurnPhase property) get displayed. I can set the Turn tracker to whatever I want, if the sequence is outside of the last 3 lists given above, the piece onboard does not update its text labels as if the Global Properties were not properly updated.
Maybe it has to do with the way I defined the sequence with several level3, 4 and 5 using the same property names. But I cannot do otherwise as I don’t want to use different names. I need those properties in many triggers and I have to use somewhat generic names.
In v2.9.9 it was much ‘simpler’ (maybe not that simple as it was a bit bugged…) as you had to name your turn tracker (eg: “Time”) then you had you could use in the whole module properties like “Time_namex” to get the name of the current levelx list being used (this way I only had to test Time_name3 to check wether it was Production phase or not and Time_value3 to determine wether it was Replacements or Reinforcement Production subphase).
Since in v3.0.x we don’t have anylonger access to such XXX_name# and XXX_value# properties I had to resort to additionnal lists with only 1 items to be able to test conditions as described above (Production/Reinforcements or Production/Replacements).
It’s true that the new turn tracker in included in Vassal and not bugged as 1.8 was but what a step backward in terms of property access 
I know that $level1$, …, $levelx$ can still be used in the display format field of a turn tracker, but outside of the turn tracker those properties are not available. And even if they were, since those properties are not anylonger prefixed with the name of the turn tracker what would happen if a (looney?) designer tries to use 2 or more Turn trackers ?
Vassal developpers : any idea if this property issue is a bug or a “by design” behavior ?
Module designers : how would you do it using the current TurnTracker and it’s current behavior ?
Any help is more than welcome as I don’t want to design my whole module in 2.9.9 now that I’m addicted to the niceties of 3.0.x (and even more so since I started to test the working builds of JUckelman…)
