SVN Trouble

After upgrading to the latest TortoiseSVN I started getting trouble committing changes back to the server with the following error:

'\' is not a working copy.

Downloading and testing the latest SVN command-line client yielded much the same results, only with some different messages.

After much googling I got a sneaky suspicion that there was an issue with my working-copy actually being on the root of a drive; in my case U:.

Checking everything out again, but this time at U:\wc worked perfectly.

Versions used:

• TortoiseSVN 1.6.10, Build 19898 - 64 Bit
• Subversion 1.6.12

To sum it up: Don't upgrade if you have your working copy at the root of a drive and it is currently working!

Item Assistant v0.9.7

Item Assistant version 0.9.7 has just been released to the public. This is a pure bugfix release that hopefully fixes some compatibility problems on Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Also included is a bugfix from Darkbane relating to the recording of org contracts.

From the changelog:

• Fixed org city output for CharacterParser integration. Does not dump contract message on zone since it doesn't contain anything useful anyway.
• Includes UAC manifest in EXE file. Hopefully this should make some compatibility problems with Vista and 7 go away.

AO Item Assistant v0.9.6

I have just released v0.9.6 of AO Item Assistant. This release is mainly a bugfix release and fixes some critical stability and compatibility issues.

Also included are patches from Darkbane to make the application output files that can be used by his tools.

Output of the files can be controlled by the Record Stats button on the toolbar.

Here is the official changelog:

• Changed link to AO Mainframe.
• Updated SQLite to version 3.6.22 to resolve some issues.
• Fixed database parser bugs. The symptom was that the application was unable to track certain items.
• Application now outputs files that can be opened with the CharacterParser application.

SWAT Without Root User

Ubuntu and other debian based distros typically haven't got a root user on the system, since its expected that system administrator tasks happen through the sudo command.

SWAT however, by default, expects you to log in with the root user to make it possible to change any settings. A very nice discovery i found by googling a while, is that the actual user doesn't matter, as long as the user you log in as have write access to the samba configuration file.

Adding my own normal user to a new "admin" group, and giving that group write access to /etc/samba/smb.conf made everything work without creating a root user for the entire system.

The Problem Child

Getting the latest release of Item Assistant out the door has been problematic to say the least. The first published binary labeled v0.9.4 proved to be flawed in more ways than one.

After FunCom released the 18.1 patch to Anarchy Online, I had to completely re-implement the database extraction code. Before it was using an existing DLL by Faircom called CTreeStd.dll. Unfortunately the age of that DLL was showing and FunCom decided (wisely IMHO) it was time to move to something that supported a database size larger than 2 GB.

Re-implementing it wasn't really that hard, as I originally based it on mapped_file_source from the boost iostreams library, to map each of the data-files into memory at a turn, and extracting all relevant information. This turned out to be a shortlived solution, as bug reports started flooding in from Windows XP users. Apparently there are limitations in the older Windows kernel that prevent me from mapping a 1 GB file into memory at one go. So I went back to the drawing board, and implemented it all again, this time using the more classic approach of the std::ifstream. Since the "random" access I cause isn't really that random (I read all items in the sequence they are stored in the file) there was no noticable performance difference between the two solutions on my PC.

So just to sum up, here is the list of what has changed between v0.9.3 and the current v0.9.5:

• Added support for the new database in v18.1.
• The application is no longer using the registry to store its settings. Settings are stored in the ItemAssistant.conf file.
• Enhanced item listing so the container column shows if an item is equipped, and at which tab-panel it is.
• Added baloon warning popup when application is started after the AO client was started since this may lead to the database being out of sync.
• Improved statusbar for the Inventory view.
• The application will now remember which dimension you chose last time you changed dimension in either the find panel or the pattern matcher.
• Added "Copy Item Name(s)" to the item context menu.
• Bug Fix: Fixed weird encoding of ampersands in backpack names.
• Bug Fix: Exporting all items from a toon should not put multiple quotes around the backpack names any more.
• Bug Fix: Fixed buffer overflow with long backpack names.