Error during cartridge import?

[+ZenGuru]

I have been looking at some "open source" Wherigo cartridges for inspiration and instruction. Unfortunately it seems that most cartridges which have been built with Urwigo (with a _cartridge.lua file) do not want to import into Urwigo (generating the above error), and I can't "open" them in Urwigo since they do not include the .urwigo file in the .gwz. Any way around this issue? Or am I just not doing something right?

[Ranger Fox]

You're correct in what you're saying. Unless the .urwigo file is included with them, I don't think you'll be able to import them into Urwigo.

[+ZenGuru]

That is sad -- somewhat defeats the purpose of making a cartridge "open source".

[Ranger Fox]

I would hope that a more recent version of Urwigo will pack the .urwigo file with the cartridge's GWZ (I thought I heard something along those lines). Aside from the open source aspect, it's good to pack the file in from a data backup and transportation standpoint. What would happen if the author wants to work on the cartridge on another computer? What about if the author purchases another computer and wants to work on his or her cartridges?

 

While it's possible to read the lua code directly, if the author elected to obfuscate variable names and strings, it's a pain to fix. I can remove the obfuscation around the strings, but the variable names are what they are. It's difficult to keep in mind the difference between zone _d389 and zone _5g1a.

 

Two lessons I learned after making the Wherigo Foundation site are I should have kept track of which builder created which cartridge (for searching, attribution, etc.) and I should have provided a way for the application to track which cartridges are based on other cartridges' code so the authors up the chain can get some credit for their work.