Since updating to OS X 10.11, all my modules have vanished from the Vassal app? Where might they be?
Wherever you saved them when they were downloaded. VASSAL doesn’t move your module files at all, it just remembers their location after the first time you open them. Use OS X search to find files ending in *.vmod
Could the OS update have deleted them. Is there a default location? They’re gone and I didn’t delete them.
Thus spake Orome:
Could the OS update have deleted them.
An OS update could do nearly anything, but it’s extremely unlikely that
an OS update would have deleted your files.
They’re gone and I didn’t delete them.
Establish where your downloads go. It’s very likely that that location is
where your module files are. Note that “modules don’t show up in VASSAL”
is NOT equivalent to “module files are not on disk”.
–
J.
So modules (and saved games) just live wherever they end up. Vassal doesn’t have a (safe) place of its own where they live?
Thus spake Orome:
“uckelman” wrote:
TEstablish where your downloads go.
So modules (and saved games) just live wherever they end up. Vassal
doesn’t have a (safe) place of its own where they live?
They’re just files. Unless you move the files you download, they’ll
be where your browser put them when you downloaded them. This isn’t
in any way unusual.
You can put your modules and saved games wherever is convenient for you.
You should put them in your user directory (rather than, say, in the
directory where VASSAL is installed). I would organize them in some
fashion, probably by module, and under that by active game. But that’s
up to you.
–
J.
That’s what was tripping me up. Leaving downloaded files used by an application in the downloads folder once the’ve been used is pretty uncommon (and strongly discouraged by the developer guidelines, at least on OS X).
Thus spake Orome:
That’s what was tripping me up. Leaving downloaded files used by an
application in the downloads folder _once the’ve been used _is pretty
uncommon (and strongly discouraged by the developer guidelines, at least
on OS X).
I don’t follow. Are you saying that OS X applications which are not your
browser move the files you’ve downloaded on opening them?
–
J.
J.
Sort of. Generally if an app knows it needs a component you’ve downloaded, it moves or copies it to a location it manages (there are standard locations for such things too) to be sure you have access to it. On OS X the Downloads folder is considered volatile so leaving something there that serves as an extension of an app’s functionality is bad practice.
I’m not following this either. If I download a PDF document on OS X–and it is saved in ~/Downloads–it doesn’t subsequently get moved when I open it with Preview.
See above: “serves as an extension of an app’s functionality”. Your example is just a document the app has opened, not part of its configuration. Anything that fits that bill should be moved to something like ~/Application Support/<AppName>; opening and using it should, in effect, install it for subsequent use.
Modules are not configuration files or components on which VASSAL relies–they’re just documents, too. The module library is more or less the equivalent of Word or Excel’s list of recently opened files.
Thus spake JoelCFC25 via messages:
Modules are not configuration files or components on which VASSAL
relies–they’re just documents, too. The module library is more or less
the equivalent of Word or Excel’s list of recently opened files.
Yes. This.
Applications should not squirrel away your data so that you don’t know
where it’s gone.
–
J.
The played games are my data, the modules are configurations that extend functionality.
No. You’ve lost track of the actual experience of using the app in the technical definition of “document”.
I hope the actual designers of VASSAL don’t think this way. This is terrible software design: not thinking through use cases at all!
Thus spake Orome:
No. You’ve lost track of the actual experience of using the app in the
technical definition of “document”.I hope the actual designers of VASSAL don’t think this way. This is
terrible software design: not thinking through use cases at all!
I am one of the developers of VASSAL. My opinion is that having an
application move files you downloaded without your input is what’s
terrible design. It leaves the user having no idea where his files have
gone.
Modules are data files. If Apple’s HGI consider them not to be, then
Apple is wrong. I’m happy to discuss it more, but it’s going to take
some very compelling considerations to the contrary to change my mind
on this point.
–
J.
That would not be time well spent, clearly. (Though I encourage you to be a bit less stubborn. At least consider offering some kind of “install module” option that pulls or copies modules into a safe location.)
In any case, this clears up why I was confused, so I’ll know to be more careful in future.