See http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1074014&st=40&start=40 topic for details.

Basically it just gets the latest masterlist from the google svn page, which is where I most frequently update the masterlist; the Nexus updates are normally a week or two behind, as I tend to do a few additions to the list at a time, when I get the time, and so it's not convenient for me to always re zip the masterlist and upload to the Nexus page every two days or so.

It also lets you manually place the unknowns instead of getting them chucked at the end, and if you prefer a different load order than BOSS-F suggests then you can keep them without having to edit the masterlist each time a new one comes out.

So, it just needs testing to make sure it works for BOSS-F, but I don't have Microsoft Word, I can only afford the (free) OpenOffice Write.

So is anyone willing to test it out, and would anyone even be interested in it?

Thanks,

Ali

EDIT: This is a macro for Microsoft Word, not another programme, and it isn't made by me.

Make it a standalone app that one can run silently (As in, start it up and it updates your list without notification) so people can schedule it, and definately.

Should probably edit the first post to say that this is a macro add on for Microsoft Word.

Oh, well that's sorta different.

Can you grab the masterlist in a consistent format (Without having to scraqe the HTML and so on) from the svn page?

Yeah, http://better-oblivion-sorting-software.googlecode.com/svn/FO3Masterlist/masterlist.txt's the link.

Edited out the embarrassment :banghead:

Sorry, but why is highlighting a problem? :unsure: View raw file > CTRL+A. It's pretty much instant.

Ah, never noticed that there! Well that's embarrassing.

You misspelt .txt

With that lovely plain text masterlist, though, it'd be trivial to auto-update it. Keeping customisations around could be a little more challenging, but that's most of the fun of coding
I'm hardly a world-class programmer, nor one with huge quantities of time on my hands, but it seems like a fun little project! Thanks for the link, and for keeping it updated

edit: Alrighty, 10 minutes of typing later, http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2502059/Python%20Scripts/BOSS-FUpdater.py. A python script that grabs the up-to-date list from the svn, compares it to the local list, extracts your changes, and updates the rest of the list around them. By changes I do -not- mean reordering of .es[pm] files already in the list, I'm assuming BOSS-F's ordering to be perfect, thus such an action is unneccesary (Though possible, if it turns out it isn't).

I can't test it out as I obviously always have the latest version of the masterlist

Should be good though, when/if I get around to adding more stuff to BOSS mind if I package it with it??

Credit will be given, of course.

Heh, not sure if it's worthy of that, but I don't mind if you want to
In testing, it seems to function pretty well, though requires Python (Written on 2.6, so anybody who's used Wrye Bash is already good-to-go).

All I did to test it was remove a few mods from my local masterlist and add a few fake ones, and it seemed to function right (But I'll still slap beta on it, not responsible if it murders your dog or runs off with your wife, so on )

Well I don't have the time to do any sort of updates at the moment, so by that time it may not be a beta .

Will probably just leave it as an optional file though, as python will probably be beyond some users/they won't read the readme and I will get lot's of bug reports saying it doesn't work.

I got enough people complaining about not supporting many mods because they didn't have the latest masterlist.

Hi AliTheLord

I just released another version of my http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1074014&st=0 (BMLM) and was looking to see if you had found anyone to test when I found this topic. I am pretty sure that BMLM would work with BOSS-F as long as you change the master list path and URL in the BMLM Configuration table.

If Phoshi wants to enhance or develop the Python version, here are some of the features that make BMLM an easy to use utility...

• Changes are kept separate from the master list, which means it is easy to see what changes you have made and alter them as required
  
• It compares the Revision number before downloading the master list text file (does not use a screen scrap)
  
• It allows you to define override definitions that are dependent on whether a mod is installed or not.
  
• It allows you to override at the BOSS(-F) Group level
  
• It looks at your BOSS(-F) log file and adds the entries for the unknown mods so that it is easy to specify which ESP/ESM they should load after.
  
• It removes any entries you have when they are included in the official master list

If you do develop an equivalent using Python, would be very interested in seeing it work on BOSS

Hope this was of interest.

In theory it should work fine for BOSS as-is, given a plain-text up to date masterlist.
Sounds like BMLM is a fair bit more complex than my very basic script, though, and has a few changes that sound like good ideas.

The main problem is, I'm a big fan of plain text simplicity. The idea I was going for writing the script was literally "I edit my masterlist all the time, how can I update it as trivially as possible?". It's the same philosophy I try and put into all of my things (and is the reason my timetable-producing script scraqes my todo list for common terms and dates in various formats rather than enforcing a particular structure for inputs), however making it more complex would certainly be more... useful.

I suppose I could keep the current behaviour and add the rest as switches, then ship it with a few batch files (I mean, BOSS itself uses a batch file for output redirection, so people must be used to that already)
Is the group level just the \[Name of thing]? And if so, how exactly does that work - rearranging particular groups? (I do remember I had to swap SM and LAME around in BOSS's list)
What does adding to the log file entail?

The Group operations works like this - you specify that you want to load "\BeginGroup\: Supreme Magicka" after "\BeginGroup\: L.A.M.E". BMLM removes all the text from the "\BeginGroup\: Supreme Magicka" to (and including its "\EndGroup" and then places it after "\BeginGroup\: L.A.M.E"'s corresponding "\EndGroup". Hope that makes sense.

BMLM looks for the "Unknown mod file: " lines and copies the ESP/ESM name into BMLM's Undefined Load Order definitions table (unless they are already there). This means you only have to enter the Load After ESP/ESM names rather than having to refer to the BOSS log file and cut and paste the ESP files - it is just a time saver.

Does this help?

Yeah, that all makes sense, and the group re-ordering is a fantastic idea

I only implemented the idea - ishmaeltheforsaken came up with it and posted the request on the BMLM thread (http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1074014&view=findpost&p=15705218)

Well this sounds promising, I'll have to start writing /BeginGroup/ in the masterlist then?? Because at the moment mine are just grouped into sound, weather, overhauls, armour etc.

Oh, no, I'm using the start of new groups to end the old one. And it works and stuff, now, my only issue is... I have no idea how to let people tell it how to rearrange the groups! But manually altering the listing in the script rearranges the groups just fine!

edit: Alright, how do people feel about another text file that stores the groups like "Group1Because that's working right now, I think.
edit: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2502059/Python%20Scripts/BOSS-FUpdater.py it should work, in theory. Make a "BOSS-F Updater Group Rearragner.txt" in your \data folder, and run this from there too. Still requires python, but there are tools like py2exe to mitigate that at some point.