Update on MapperGUI overhaul

Following the structure of a previous post, here's what's happened so far:

• Structural Improvements - I've re-organized both the GUI and mapper itself along more modular lines. I've created proper __init__.py packages.  I will continue to do so with the overhaul.


• Installation improvements - 'python setup.py build' and 'python setup.py install' will work when the next version goes out. I've already determined that distutils.py will properly build an extension library (using Visual C++ under Windows/gcc under Linux) without impertinent suggestions from me. Turns out I don't need a custom Makefile, I just need to give the right arguments to bdist_win...


• Switch to a more capable GUI toolkit - Done that. I'm re-writing MapperGUI using wxPython instead of TkInter.  The wxPython toolkit is enormously more capable.


• Overhaul the interface - I am in the process of doing that with the re-write using wxPython.  I will be using a notetab-type control for the mapper settings, and MapperGUI's own settings will be tweakable through a preferences dialog.  A lot of stuff that was hard-coded before, such as the location and name of mapper.py, the name of the intermediate output files, the default output directory, the command-line arguments for mapper, etc, etc, etc, will be configurable. In theory, you could drop in a different command-line driven mapper program as the backend. In actuality, it would have to take very similar arguments and settings, but, oh well. The new settings file will be in standard INI-file format (for now).


• Overhaul the Caption Editor - I'm still just thinking nice thoughts about this, but it will be addressed after I get the basic re-write in order.


• Hook in additional utilities - some of this is being built in already, as they are side results from processing DAOC game data files just to load the menus and draw the maps. Look for a 'Tools' or similar menu option in the versions to come.


• Draw dungeons and Cities - I'm loading them into the menu, but disabled for now, as the capability to draw them is not going to be addressed until the basic re-write is done.  At least you can see their names and wonder what the heck some of them are for.


• Update Help System - wxPython supports a beautiful HTML help system in both Windows and Linux. I'm using it. I have the framework working, but need to actually write some new help files (For testing purposes, I just cut and pasted from the relevant pages on Rath Nathrach)

...and there you have it. Testing this sucker is going to be a whole 'nother issue.  If I put a public beta version up, I'll need to make very clear that it is beta code, and likely to be buggy; I don't want people thinking it sucks because it doesn't work right when it isn't even finished testing.