Question Regarding A New Library

[Kith]

I'm currently working on a mod where i've come to the point i'd like to setup proper locale specific strings. I started to write a LibLocale to do such a thing and was a good way through when I recalled the existence of AceLocale (for World of Warcraft). Given the similarity between AceLocale and the one i'm writing i'm curious/concerned as to how I should go about things.

The lib is functionally similar and not to dissimilar in code either baring the changes to work with ESO specifically so i'm not sure how things would fall under any claims of copying. Does anybody have any advice on how I should proceed, or if I should proceed with the library as it is?

Thanks

[Saenic]

Why not? All addons are open source and as long as you don't sell yours, you are fine.

It would be nice, if someone would write a library system similar to Ace(3), which handles Addon creation, translation, saved variables, hooking, options menu, etc...
Currently all addons need to watch for EVENT_ADD_ON_LOADED and then only do stuff when the current addon is loaded.

[Seerah]

Originally Posted by Saenic Why not? All addons are open source and as long as you don't sell yours, you are fine.

This is 100% not true. Just because you can view the contents (source) of an addon, does NOT mean that an addon is "open source". Unless a specific license is provided, granting permissions, addons are All Rights Reserved.

According to the Ace3 page on wowace.com, the license for the Ace3 libraries is Ace3 Style BSD.

[Kith]

Originally Posted by Seerah According to the Ace3 page on wowace.com, the license for the Ace3 libraries is Ace3 Style BSD.

Aye, I saw that, that was my dilemma really. Its not technically a port as it was written without reference, but the end result is very similar (was probably inspired from looking at it in the past while wow modding) and the 3rd point seems to imply I could not make a direct port without written permission if i'm reading it right and i'd rather not get a whole argument over code stealing going right at the dawn of a new modding scence even if its not intentional.

Though for AceLib in general, its biggest (imho) uses were for a centralized event registry and callback handler and both of those are natively built-in to ESO's code as is a, somewhat basic, options gui. The string locale setup was the main component I felt was missing which is why I went to write one.

[Vuelhering]

One of the reasons I rarely look at other people's code is to avoid things like that. If you're not copying it, don't worry. Having done tons of reverse engineering in the past with clean room techniques, functionality can be exactly the same and you don't need to sweat it.

[ins]

It is a sad state of affairs when the copyright/patent bs has reached the point where you cant make an addon without fears of it being accused of being a "copy" of something from another game.

That said; re locale, I am thinking it would be nice with something similar to AceLocale for making translation easier.

Q: How can you find out the locale a user is using?

[Kith]

Originally Posted by ins It is a sad state of affairs when the copyright/patent bs has reached the point where you cant make an addon without fears of it being accused of being a "copy" of something from another game. That said; re locale, I am thinking it would be nice with something similar to AceLocale for making translation easier. Q: How can you find out the locale a user is using?

Thats pretty much my issue, I gave up for the time being as I my few attempts to make the library end up far to similar looking that i'm not sure I want to deal with the potential hassle :/

As for finding out the locale, you can use:

local locale= GetCVar("language.2") -- returns 'en' for me using english on the NA servers

[Seerah]

If you are coding it from scratch and it seems that your code ends up looking similar to AceLocale simply by the nature of the addon and the language/API, then you should be good.

[Xrystal]

Originally Posted by Kith Thats pretty much my issue, I gave up for the time being as I my few attempts to make the library end up far to similar looking that i'm not sure I want to deal with the potential hassle :/ As for finding out the locale, you can use: local locale= GetCVar("language.2") -- returns 'en' for me using english on the NA servers

Thanks for that bit of info Kith. Its what I needed to set up the localization side of my addon(s). How did you get to that information ? I had guessed it would be amongst the cvar values but had no clue what the value to test for would be short of trying the word locale rofl

[Pawkette]

You can also use:

localization/$(language).lua

in your .txt file to load a specific locale, and not have the overhead of the others.

[Seerah]

Neat trick.

[Xrystal]

Originally Posted by Pawkette You can also use: localization/$(language).lua in your .txt file to load a specific locale, and not have the overhead of the others.

That is cool. But what if that locale doesn't have a file available ? In wow I used to code it so that if no file existed for the current locale it would use the default English one.

[Kith]

Originally Posted by Xrystal Thanks for that bit of info Kith. Its what I needed to set up the localization side of my addon(s). How did you get to that information ? I had guessed it would be amongst the cvar values but had no clue what the value to test for would be short of trying the word locale rofl

I can't take credit for it really, I saw it in the code for another mod though >.> I forget which at the moment. Seemed to do the trick though so i've been using it in a very stripped down manner in my addon so far.

Will look at doing the Locale library in the next few days, but want to finish my present concept first now :>

[Saenic]

Originally Posted by Seerah This is 100% not true. Just because you can view the contents (source) of an addon, does NOT mean that an addon is "open source". Unless a specific license is provided, granting permissions, addons are All Rights Reserved. According to the Ace3 page on wowace.com, the license for the Ace3 libraries is Ace3 Style BSD.

I know my comment was a bit too naive, I see that now. But what I meant is, that most of those addons allow you to modify and redistribute the code as long as you give the original author credit.

So as far as I read the license page, the only thing we need is permission from Kaelten (or someone from the Ace3 team) to port AceLocale. So far there is already a port of AceTimer on esoui (http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info53-AceTimer.html) and I wonder if Kaelten gave his permission.

@Kith: I modified AceLocale for my addon by changing only a few lines (most notable the one mentioned above). But since you first brought this up, I think you should post it on esoui (if we get permission to do so).

[Kith]

Originally Posted by Saenic I know my comment was a bit too naive, I see that now. But what I meant is, that most of those addons allow you to modify and redistribute the code as long as you give the original author credit. So as far as I read the license page, the only thing we need is permission from Kaelten (or someone from the Ace3 team) to port AceLocale. So far there is already a port of AceTimer on esoui (http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info53-AceTimer.html) and I wonder if Kaelten gave his permission. @Kith: I modified AceLocale for my addon by changing only a few lines (most notable the one mentioned above). But since you first brought this up, I think you should post it on esoui (if we get permission to do so).

If you are able to get permission from Kaelten, feel free to post it I'm using a kludgey verison in my Azurah mod now to bypass things until a proper lib is made/ported but between RL and the mod itself, I haven't had time to even look into making a library, either inspired by or from scratch.