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   Pre-configuration files for LaunchMate?
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   Author  Topic: Pre-configuration files for LaunchMate?  (Read 122 times)
fng2k
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Pre-configuration files for LaunchMate?
« on: Apr 13th, 2003, 12:48pm »
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Hi-
 
I stumbled across your fantastic application awhile back, and it was just what I was looking for to make a mod/add-on manager for a flightsim named Gunship!.
 
I distributed LaunchMate with a pre-configured .lmd file, so that the users saw this:
 

 

 
I ran into a problem though when I found that the lmd backup file created on my Win98 PC would not work on XP or W2K machines. I wasn't able to contact you about this, and ultimately had to abandon the LaunchMate approach and use Adobe Acrobat Forms instead.
 
I'd much rather use your app again, (and recommend it to others), but I was wondering if LaunchMate 4.0 will have any ability to use pre-configured .lmd files, so a particular configuration could be shared? This would be enormously useful to the sim/game community. SOme capacity to refresh backgrounds on the form when new categories are selected would be nice, too.
 
Thanks for all your excellent, generous work on this.
 
cheers
fng2k
 
(btw: the pop-ups on this forum from your ISP are extremely intrusive. Any way to tone them down a bit?)
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TDRWare
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Re: Pre-configuration files for LaunchMate?
« Reply #1 on: Apr 13th, 2003, 7:58pm »
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I'm sorry if you emailed me and I haven't got back to you. I was getting so many email viruses that I started getting paranoid and deleting email from people I didn't know. It is one of the reasons I found this forum and set it up.
 
LaunchMate 4 will have profiles and style files which can be shared. As far as sharing data files your paths would have to match to share the data files.
 
About the popups I have no control over the ads.
Maybe I could charge money for LaunchMate and pay for web hosting.
 
I use Pop-Up Stopper to get rid of popups.
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fng2k
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Re: Pre-configuration files for LaunchMate?
« Reply #2 on: Apr 14th, 2003, 8:27am »
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Hi-
 
Thanks for the speedy reply!
 
Sorry if I bugged you with the pop-up comment. I didn't notice it was a free ISP, so clearly the pop-ups are outside your control.  I've had similar problems when I used free webhosts.  
 
And I should have said "aggressive" instead of "intrusive". The pop-up's being sent out by your ISP include some of the most aggressive spyware installers and browser hijack attempts I've seen, including a very pernicous Gator applet. I would urge visitors to install and run another great piece of freeware named Ad-Aware to protect their privacy a bit. Your Panicware suggestion is also excellent. In fact if you are running that, I'm sure you didn't even know that the ISP was pushing pop-ups like these.  
 
Anyway: I'm very sorry if I offended.
 
Thanks for the 4.0 info. Sharable profiles and styles is great idea. I wonder if that would have some appeal as a commercial product? A "branded" application launcher?
 
Your comment on the path issue was insightful. I actually had a problem with that issue, too, but forgot to mention it. If it was easy to have LaunchMate include an option of using relative rather than absolute path info, that would be extremely useful, too.  As you know, simmers/gamers often have multiple installs of the same app, or even dedicated drives. Plus the international path names often vary. However I suspect you are making API calls that might make that tricky.  
 
Just as background: The way I've used LaunchMate is to have it call DOS batch files or other types of scripts which actually execute the mod. This approach works quite well, since very often these mods only require very simple file management tasks behind the scenes (copy, rename, move, etc.) Because of the versatility of LaunchMate, this would be an extremely useful approach for a wide variety of sims. Many more people know how to write a batch file, than know how to code a snazzy GUI like LaunchMate. We were hoping to build a whole series of Mod M8's for various sims. The relative path capability would make that enormously easier on our end, but again I don't know how complex that change would be on your end.
 
Anyway, it's great to be able to discuss LaunchMate with you. It really is an extremely well-done piece of work. My hats off to you!
 
cheers
fng2k
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TDRWare
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Re: Pre-configuration files for LaunchMate?
« Reply #3 on: Apr 20th, 2003, 9:13am »
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One thing I might add for dealing with relative paths is special tags for example:  
 
You could use the tag and LaunchMate would resolve it to a full path such as [pf] might resolve to your program files directory so if you typed [pf]launchmate\lnchmate.exe
 
you would get c:\program files\launchmate\lnchmate.exe
 
Another thing that I plan on doing after LaunchMate 4.0 is updating the LaunchMate converter to import/export LaunchMate data files as XML
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fng2k
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Re: Pre-configuration files for LaunchMate?
« Reply #4 on: Apr 21st, 2003, 9:56pm »
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Hi again-
I think your idea of using tags to denote path variables is great! That would certainly simplify things. While I'm not too familiar with XML, that does sound like it would expand LaunchMate's interoperability potential.
 
Fantastic! Now this is the phase where enthusiastic fans start pestering you about release dates... Wink
 
You mentioned elsewhere that you enjoy scenic photography. This is one of my favorite areas, and favorite photographers:
 
G. Steve Jordan's site
 

 
cheers
fng
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