It's time to help new players joining Spring!!!

[Licho]

SD has it's own subset of problems. The most notable being downloads that eff up halfway through or never start to begin with, or SD kicking the user from the battle if the map refuses to download.

It uses same downloader SL does (+pool system).
Failed downloads are simply not available/not registered correctly, newbie user should not be bothered to download stuff manually.

Downloads that halt in middle are those with dependencies,where dependency is defined using archive name and not internal name, or is simply unavailable. Those can fail in middle. I have never seen or received report of non-dependency download stopping in middle since SD became lobby.

[AF]

SD should still explain what happens on failure, an errorless error is not an error [without a barb please]
I would like to point out:

A: It was not a barb
B: It was paraphrasing the hundreds of blogs Ive read which say exactly the same thing

e.g.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_hiding
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/0 ... sibly.html
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/0 ... e-fun.html
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/0 ... t-die.html
http://www.qtcentre.org/threads/20759-H ... gracefully

By removing the component of my post you opposed you've completely changed the meaning of my post, and misinterpreted the original meaning.

[enetheru]

This lobby client has been available for months. Newbies to spring use it without any help. Most of you guys (like Wombat and Triton) are babbling and talking in circles about downloading mods and maps. SD users (SD USERS, not SD+TASC USERS) don't know what a mod or map is, they don't know anything about folders, they just join games and play.

my question, is how are people still getting to the lobby without this? seems like SD should be default for new users

nothing wrong with the more "advanced" lobbies... but for first time users i would assume SD is the best option

Spring downloader is windows only (unless you count wine, which I don't).
With the current structure of the springrts project I think that would disqualify it from being the default.

[Argh]

Couldn't that be fixed? Or is it written using something that's Windows-dependent?

[luckywaldo7]

It uses .NET, so if there was a mono developer interested in working on it, it could probably be made to work on linux. Licho has already called for help though and no one seemed qualified/interested.

[Licho]

It worked on linux but we dropped support because of no linux coders.
It WONT work in wine!

[Argh]

OK, so it's not a technical problem, it's a maintenance / personnel problem. Seems like this is something we might want to advertise for help with around here.

[hoijui]

hughperkins and Agon were our Linux based C# guys, but hugh is gone and Agon... also quite gone as it seems.

personally, i can not understand why a linux coder would want to learn/use C#. it is kind of... you know...
like running MS word in wine to write basic Word documents. then again, "reality" proves me wrong there.

[triton]

I have problems with my integrated to motherboard gpu, fraps doesnt work anymore, I go to buy a new gpu monday or tuesday...

[Pxtl]

It uses .NET, so if there was a mono developer interested in working on it, it could probably be made to work on linux. Licho has already called for help though and no one seemed qualified/interested.

I've actually done some work porting simple, tiny .NET apps to Mono... but SD is a large enough app I don't think it would be half as easy as the Mono press makes it sound. Mono's gui libs don't behave like the Windows ones _at all_ so I spent forever just debugging the layout.

[CarRepairer]

It uses .NET, so if there was a mono developer interested in working on it, it could probably be made to work on linux. Licho has already called for help though and no one seemed qualified/interested.

I've actually done some work porting simple, tiny .NET apps to Mono... but SD is a large enough app I don't think it would be half as easy as the Mono press makes it sound. Mono's gui libs don't behave like the Windows ones _at all_ so I spent forever just debugging the layout.

Just help us debug? Just the fact that you have Linux, know C# and you are online at reasonable times where we can talk to you, is a huge plus.

[Pxtl]

Could do. I tend to do my freelance geeking at the wee hours of the night, though... and since I've got a 1 month old baby now, that time is reserved for sleep (sadly, checking the Spring forum from work is all I get to do for the moment). Once I get my nerdage hours back, I'll see what I can do.

[Licho]

Atm it does run on linux but with some random annoying bugs (layout, ugly looks, and freezes on some 64bit OS).
However unless we have someone with real dedication willing to work for years, dont bother. If its win-only we can use more advanced features, more modern GUI framework etc..