Author Topic: Handling multiple ADE files for a single airport  (Read 2298 times)

w6kd

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Handling multiple ADE files for a single airport
« on: September 05, 2019, 07:52:18 pm »
A fair number of airport add-ons have multiple airport (AFCAD/ADE/AFX) files which are swapped in  as needed (either manually or using a config program supplied with the scenery) e.g. for crosswind or specific runway ops configurations.  Currently to cover all the bases I define multiple GSX ini files, but each time I make an edit, I have to clone multiple copies of the post-edit ini file (one for each possible ADE variation) and then change the afcad_path in each copied ini file.

It would be useful to have the option to specify several alternative afcad_paths in the GSX .ini file so that GSX would match up with any one of the airport files.  Perhaps afcad_path2=..., afcad_path3=... etc.   

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Bob Scott

virtuali

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Re: Handling multiple ADE files for a single airport
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2019, 02:22:34 pm »
It would be useful to have the option to specify several alternative afcad_paths in the GSX .ini file so that GSX would match up with any one of the airport files.  Perhaps afcad_path2=..., afcad_path3=... etc.   

That seems like an easy enough change but, it can get trick very quickly:

- what if the multiple AFCADs are not just changing the runway assignments, but the parking spots too, for example to alternate between a static planes vs AI planes configuration ? Those would really require two different .INI, otherwise GSX would try to use a parking spot which is not really there (and place or guide you over a static plane)

- what if the scenery developer release a new variant of the AFCAD after you already made an .INI file for which covered it as a multiple selection, and this USED to be compatible, but the new version is not ? You would have to remove the extra afcad_path line, otherwise GSX would start to behave wrong.

- What if a different developer of an entirely different scenery of the airport release an AFCAD for his version that, by chance, has the same name of one of the other variants covered by an .INI file with multiple afcad paths ? In addition to GSX behaving entirely wrong, you would have to remove the afcad_path to even begin to customize it, since the editor wouldn't have created a new .INI file for it.

There are many things that could go wrong so, I think the current approach is the safest one, since only you editing the AFCAD after having checked it, can possibly know if it's safe to use cloned .INI files or not.

w6kd

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Re: Handling multiple ADE files for a single airport
« Reply #2 on: September 09, 2019, 06:56:43 pm »
OK, I see your point...my thinking was that if it had to be done via a manual .ini file edit, that only advanced users would try it anyway.  No problem, I can write a utility to spawn the .ini file copies when needed.

Is there a format for inserting comment lines in the GSX .ini files?

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Bob Scott

virtuali

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Re: Handling multiple ADE files for a single airport
« Reply #3 on: September 10, 2019, 12:07:19 am »
Is there a format for inserting comment lines in the GSX .ini files?

This is a tricky question. There's no recognized standard for comments in .INI files, and this lead to a proliferation of different conventions, some people use the // c++ standard, others use the semi-colon, but not all parsing libraries agree which one is standard because there isn't one.

We decided to use the semicolon, as you can see in files such the sim.cfg of our objects, so you can be sure our own .INI parser will work fine with them.