old versions of Vassal

Technical Support & Bugs
1

Hello, I am trying to resurrect a module I was working on back in early 2008 (!).

However, when I open it now with Vassal 3.1.18 it seems to only partially work. For example, I had many right-button commands coded on cards/chits and they won’t show at all now.

To start tracking what’s going on I wanted to run an old version of Vassal from 2008, which I think was either still 2.9 or maybe 3.0. This is just to make sure I remember how those commands where supposed to work back then.

How do I go about running old versions of Vassal? I downloaded 3.0.17-generic.zip but it tells me I lack “javaw”. Is that the JRE? Should I put the VASSAL java+stuff in some specific folder to have it execute?

Also, any clues why right-button commands won’t show at all now?

Thanks in advance.

2

I’m pretty sure v3.1 was around in 2008. I got involved with Vassal in back in '07 and it was 3.1 when I got started.

As for the right-click commands not working…hm…some thoughts:

-Check any piece that you added a command to, in the Editor, and look at the traits related to the command. In order for a command to show on the menu, the trait needs to have an entry for Command Name (depending on the trait, it’s sometimes called Menu Text). If Command Name is empty, the item won’t show on the menu. Are those filled in for the missing commands?

-Try adding a new trait to a piece, something simple. (If you’re using Vassal 3.1, I’d use Delete.) Then check the right-click menu for the piece. Does the command show up on the piece now?

-Could this be a mouse issue? If you switched from PC to Mac since 2008, the module would still work, but the mouse would work differently by default.

3

Hi, thxs for your answer.

I tried adding the DELETE trait: it does show up.

Why the rest of the commands don’t show up? I see three possibilities:

  1. I don’t remember how my module was supposed to work and none should actually show;

  2. I have a messed version of my module which was broken when I last saved it;

  3. The module was working fine under Vassal 3.0, or 2.9 maybe, and the “culprit” is version 3.1.

If it’s either (1) and (2) then, well, my bad… I will have to dig into it or forget about it for another 3 years ;-)

However, I would like to be sure it’s not a “problem” with Vassal 3.1, first. This is not to say 3.1 is buggy, far from it, but maybe that my module inadvertently exploited some bugs in 2.9-3.0 or some trait/trigger/etc have changed way of working with 3.1.

I did start working on this module back in early 2007 all the way - with many breaks- till march 2008 (date of the latest saved version I have).

I seem to recall Vassal 3.0 came out maybe in late 2007.

Any clue how to run the old versions of Vassal (2.9 and 3.0) without getting the error I mentioned?

4

Can you post the module someplace, so we can get under the hood and take a look at it?

What specific problems are you noticing?

(I’m not sure how to run versions of Vassal before 3.1; maybe one of the devs can speak to that.)

5

Oops… (blush)

I just discovered I was opening an old saved file (march 2008) when I actually had a later version saved (september 2008).

When I open that the right-click commands show as I remember they should. That old version was buggy or something, who cares.

Sorry for wasting your time!