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LED Animation Editor - question for all the LED-Wiz Devs...
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RandyT:

--- Quote from: arzoo on July 23, 2007, 04:39:08 pm ---Wow, when I started this thread, my animation editor was nearing completion and all I was hoping for was buy-in on a few parsing rules so that the editor would work for players other than LEDBlinky.

Those rules were a bit of a kluge because the original LWA format was never intended to control multiple devices. Suggestions were made to help address this shortcoming - new commands, xml, etc. I don't think this is change for the sake of change.

--- End quote ---

Well, it's something that could have been addressed with one simple new command to the existing language, and I suggested it because it was what I was actually going to use in my editor.  Going to XML in order to do little more than re-package the current language is, IMHO, "change for the sake of change" :)

RandyT
headkaze:
Randy I think it's pretty apparant your against the xml format. I hope it's not because you can't be bothered re-writing your parsing code :P

Parsing xml is not slow in my experience. When I said half a hearbeat and less than a second I probably should have actually said milliseconds. I use xml for all my data file needs these days and I can parse relatively large files in fractions of a second. If you really need to know numbers parsing the ListInfo.xml file generated by Mame (26 MB) takes 1.6 seconds on my P4 3Ghz and that is using .NET's System.Xml's parser. A 3 KB file on the other hand (rougly the size a standard lwa would be) takes 0.0093 seconds to parse. So now can we end this debate on parsing xml being slow already.

Secondly I think xml is great because it is a standard format. The original lwa format is unreadable. I can look at that xml posted by arzoo and I can pretty much know exactly what it means. But I propose another change to the format for the sake of readability and that is to change SBA and PBA to the more meaningful English equivelant of State and Intensity.


--- Code: ---<LEDWizAnimation>
 <Frame Number="1" Duration="250">
   <Intensity LEDWizID="1" Value=" 0,48,0,0,0,48,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,48,0,0,0,48,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0" />
   <State LEDWizID="1" Value=" 0,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0" GlobalPulse="2" />
   <Intensity LEDWizID="2" Value=" 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,48,0,0,48,48,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,48,0,0,48,48,0,0" />
   <State LEDWizID="2" Value=" 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,1,0,0" GlobalPulse="2" />
 </Frame>
  <Frame Number="2" Duration="250">
   <State LEDWizID="1" Value=" 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0" GlobalPulse="2" />
   <State LEDWizID="2" Value=" 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0" GlobalPulse="2" />
 </Frame>
   <Goto Frame="1" Times="5" />
   <Frame Number="3" Duration="100">
   <State LEDWizID="1" Value=" 0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0" GlobalPulse="2" />
   <State LEDWizID="2" Value=" 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,0" GlobalPulse="2" />
 </Frame>
 <Frame Number="4" Duration="100">
   <State LEDWizID="1" Value=" 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0" GlobalPulse="2" />
   <State LEDWizID="2" Value=" 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0" GlobalPulse="2" />
 </Frame>
 <Frame Number="5" Duration="100">
   <State LEDWizID="1" Value=" 0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0" GlobalPulse="2" />
   <State LEDWizID="2" Value=" 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0" GlobalPulse="2" />
 </Frame>
    <Goto Frame="3" Times="10" />
</LEDWizAnimation>

--- End code ---
RandyT:

--- Quote from: headkaze on July 24, 2007, 12:24:24 am ---Randy I think it's pretty apparant your against the xml format. I hope it's not because you can't be bothered re-writing your parsing code :P

--- End quote ---

That's not it at all.  I look at XML and it literally looks to me like something that uses 20 words to say what one could.  It also gives me a bad feeling that less capable programmers will be shut out by it.  I've never been on the side of complicating something more than is absolutely necessary, and if there is no tangible benefit in doing so, I have to say I'm against it.  It should be noted that even though I am currently the most vocal, I'm not the only voice with this view.


--- Quote ---The original lwa format is unreadable.

--- End quote ---

Really?  You've written playback routines for LWA files that literally have a syntax encompassing less than a half dozen commands.  I think you can tell as well as I can what's happening in the original file ;) .

I think it's apparent that a consensus on the matter probably won't be reached.  So as much as I hate to say it, it looks like we might be needing to rely on conversion utilities for compatibility between applications.  When you get right down to it, that's not a big deal.  A conversion utility in the form of input and output filters would be a requirement internal to any app using XML anyway, so the end result will pretty much be the same.

RandyT
youki:
I think the best thing would be that Randy specifies the format he wants for his hardware.  He impose the standard and that's it. We have just to follow.  After all , it is his hardware.

No? 

loadman:

--- Quote from: youki on July 24, 2007, 05:49:37 am ---I think the best thing would be that Randy specifies the format he wants for his hardware.  He impose the standard and that's it. We have just to follow.  After all , it is his hardware.
No? 

--- End quote ---
Ahhh ...Well if he was 'paying' for software development then yeah sure he would get the final call.  :P

But I agree with Randy's point here so let's move on:

--- Quote --- So as much as I hate to say it, it looks like we might be needing to rely on conversion utilities for compatibility between applications..
--- End quote ---

Youki said he would make one to convert to his format in any case

I will probably end up making a converter one day to convert MaLa hardware/PacDrive animations anyway, so the fact that there are different LWA formats are no big deal, just a shame.
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