This developer blog was one of the many ways I've tried to reach out to the users of TSM and gold-making community. I haven't been very regular in my posts on it (mainly cause I haven't had enough that I thought was interesting to share in the form of a blog post). So, I'm officially retiring the blog and this will be the last post. I'll still leave it up here so the old posts can still be viewed.
If you want to keep up-to-date on TSM news, you can follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Sapu94
Thanks!
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
TradeSkillMaster Release This Week!
It's official (sort of), the release of TradeSkillMaster will be this week! Not even I know the exact day yet (but not today) and probably won't until the day it's actually released.
There's a ton of administrative things that I'll be doing before the actual release such as cleaning up the stickies on the forums which I'm working on today, getting all the localizations on curseforge up to date, updating the addon descriptions on curse, picking a logo for TSM, and helping get the new website up and running. There are also a few more things I plan on adding to the addon itself.
Stay tuned :)
PS: Insert generic "don't bet your life on this release date announcement being accurate what-so-ever" message here.
There's a ton of administrative things that I'll be doing before the actual release such as cleaning up the stickies on the forums which I'm working on today, getting all the localizations on curseforge up to date, updating the addon descriptions on curse, picking a logo for TSM, and helping get the new website up and running. There are also a few more things I plan on adding to the addon itself.
Stay tuned :)
PS: Insert generic "don't bet your life on this release date announcement being accurate what-so-ever" message here.
Friday, January 6, 2012
TradeSkillMaster Release Preview
To avoid repeating myself too many times, I'm just going to link to this forum post :)
http://stormspire.net/official-tradeskillmaster-development-forum/4631-tradeskillmaster-release-version-preview.html
http://stormspire.net/official-tradeskillmaster-development-forum/4631-tradeskillmaster-release-version-preview.html
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
TSM Works with 4.3
As I've talked about previously, there were some pretty major changes this patch. I was almost successful in fixing all the bugs before the servers came back up, but alas I missed a few things which caused various errors as well as introduced a brand new error with an unrelated change I had made.
After all the "chaos" that is patch day, I'm pretty confident that any bugs introduced with patch 4.3 have now been fixed. If you are still experiencing issues, see the following thread.
http://consortium.stormspire.net/official-trade-skill-master-development-forum/4297-official-patch-4-3-issues-post-having-issues-read.html
Thanks for your patience. Happy patch day.
-Sapu
PS: Fun fact, the main TradeSkillMaster module by itself had over 15k downloads today as of me writing this.
After all the "chaos" that is patch day, I'm pretty confident that any bugs introduced with patch 4.3 have now been fixed. If you are still experiencing issues, see the following thread.
http://consortium.stormspire.net/official-trade-skill-master-development-forum/4297-official-patch-4-3-issues-post-having-issues-read.html
Thanks for your patience. Happy patch day.
-Sapu
PS: Fun fact, the main TradeSkillMaster module by itself had over 15k downloads today as of me writing this.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Known Issues with TSM on PTR
So, it has been brought to my intention that Blizzard thought it would be fun to make diving by zero throw an error in 4.3. Now, you might be wondering why anybody would divide by zero in the first place. It turns out, there are many situations in which dividing by zero is useful.
Some of the situations are easy enough to fix (just use math.huge instead of 1/0), but others are not so easy. For example, everywhere I have 1/X where X is some variable, I now have to make sure X is not zero. Previously, if X were 0 I would catch later on that 1/X was too high a number, but in 4.3, this would cause an error and crash the addon so I'll have to be a lot more paranoid when doing division.
So, going through the dozens of code files to find and fix all these situations will take a while but I will try my best to have it done before 4.3. There will likely be ones that I miss so please check for updates when 4.3 goes live and let me know if you encounter any divide by zero errors (or any other errors for that matter).
Some of the situations are easy enough to fix (just use math.huge instead of 1/0), but others are not so easy. For example, everywhere I have 1/X where X is some variable, I now have to make sure X is not zero. Previously, if X were 0 I would catch later on that 1/X was too high a number, but in 4.3, this would cause an error and crash the addon so I'll have to be a lot more paranoid when doing division.
So, going through the dozens of code files to find and fix all these situations will take a while but I will try my best to have it done before 4.3. There will likely be ones that I miss so please check for updates when 4.3 goes live and let me know if you encounter any divide by zero errors (or any other errors for that matter).
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Happy Birthday TSM!
It's true, one year ago today, the TradeSkillMaster project was created on curse (proof). If I may, let's take a quick look back at all that has happened over the past year (and slightly before).
January 31st, 2010 - I start my addon programming days with an addon called Slippy. This addon is inspired by Quick Auctions 3 and fills in the missing capability of QA3 as far as creating enchanting scrolls.
April 8th, 2010 - Slippy gets a new name, Scroll Master.
October 11th, 2010 - I create Auction Profit Master, a continuation of the now discontinued QA3 addon which was abandoned due to the new hardware requirements on posting and canceling of auctions.
October 15th, 2010 - With brainstorming help from Cente, I decide that I want to combine the auction posting / canceling features of Auction Profit Master with the crafting features of Scroll Master and make one all-inclusive gold making addon. TradeSkillMaster is born.
November 27th, 2010 - At this point, all major gold bloggers have been informed about this new TradeSkillMaster addon that's in early development. The addon is featured in this JMTC post by Marcko. This same day, we begin inviting people (initially focusing on bloggers) to become alpha testers. The initial alpha version contains the AuctionDB, Auctioning, Crafting, Mailing, and Shopping modules.
December 5th, 2010 - First alpha version of the Gathering module released. This is the last new module before TSM is released as Beta.
December 7th, 2010 - Cataclysm is released. This date was the original (very optimistic) target beta release date.
January 15th, 2011 - TradeSkillMaster finally released to general public as beta! Over the next few weeks, literally hundreds of bugs are fixed as tens of thousands of people start using the addon. The addon is also featured on many key gold blogs.
January 22nd, 2011 - TradeSkillMaster gets an official, dedicated forum at The Consortium.
May 5th, 2011 - At this point, TradeSkillMaster is relatively stable and has earned it's spot in the gold making community. The 8th module (including the main one), Accounting is released for some early testing. Accounting was released as beta 2 weeks later.
May 23rd, 2011 - The 9th (and currently most recent) module, Destroying, created by Geemoney, is ready for alpha testing and is released as beta 5 days later.
June 1st, 2011 - At this point, TradeSkillMaster is very stable and countless new features have been added since it was first released as beta four and a half months earlier. Work now begins on one of the biggest new features planned for the release version of TSM, the new auction house tab. Work on the release version of TSM (including this new tab) continues to this day!
While I don't have accurate numbers as to how many people use TradeSkillMaster, I do have data as to how many people use each of my addons relative to each other that I thought I'd share. From highest to lowest: TradeSkillMaster, TSM_Crafting, TSM_Auctioning, TSM_AuctionDB, TSM_Shopping, TSM_Gathering, TSM_Mailing, TSM_Accounting, TSM_Destroying.
Without sounding too sentimental, I really enjoy working on this addon. Watching it grow from a far-fetched idea into what it is today has truly been rewarding. There have been hundreds of people who have helped along the way that I'd personally like to thank. This includes everybody from the initial alpha testers to the bloggers to the people who have contributed code to everybody over at The Consortium to people who stopped by the forum or IRC to provide feedback.
Here's to another successful year :)
January 31st, 2010 - I start my addon programming days with an addon called Slippy. This addon is inspired by Quick Auctions 3 and fills in the missing capability of QA3 as far as creating enchanting scrolls.
April 8th, 2010 - Slippy gets a new name, Scroll Master.
October 11th, 2010 - I create Auction Profit Master, a continuation of the now discontinued QA3 addon which was abandoned due to the new hardware requirements on posting and canceling of auctions.
November 27th, 2010 - At this point, all major gold bloggers have been informed about this new TradeSkillMaster addon that's in early development. The addon is featured in this JMTC post by Marcko. This same day, we begin inviting people (initially focusing on bloggers) to become alpha testers. The initial alpha version contains the AuctionDB, Auctioning, Crafting, Mailing, and Shopping modules.
December 5th, 2010 - First alpha version of the Gathering module released. This is the last new module before TSM is released as Beta.
December 7th, 2010 - Cataclysm is released. This date was the original (very optimistic) target beta release date.
January 15th, 2011 - TradeSkillMaster finally released to general public as beta! Over the next few weeks, literally hundreds of bugs are fixed as tens of thousands of people start using the addon. The addon is also featured on many key gold blogs.
January 22nd, 2011 - TradeSkillMaster gets an official, dedicated forum at The Consortium.
May 5th, 2011 - At this point, TradeSkillMaster is relatively stable and has earned it's spot in the gold making community. The 8th module (including the main one), Accounting is released for some early testing. Accounting was released as beta 2 weeks later.
May 23rd, 2011 - The 9th (and currently most recent) module, Destroying, created by Geemoney, is ready for alpha testing and is released as beta 5 days later.
June 1st, 2011 - At this point, TradeSkillMaster is very stable and countless new features have been added since it was first released as beta four and a half months earlier. Work now begins on one of the biggest new features planned for the release version of TSM, the new auction house tab. Work on the release version of TSM (including this new tab) continues to this day!
While I don't have accurate numbers as to how many people use TradeSkillMaster, I do have data as to how many people use each of my addons relative to each other that I thought I'd share. From highest to lowest: TradeSkillMaster, TSM_Crafting, TSM_Auctioning, TSM_AuctionDB, TSM_Shopping, TSM_Gathering, TSM_Mailing, TSM_Accounting, TSM_Destroying.
Without sounding too sentimental, I really enjoy working on this addon. Watching it grow from a far-fetched idea into what it is today has truly been rewarding. There have been hundreds of people who have helped along the way that I'd personally like to thank. This includes everybody from the initial alpha testers to the bloggers to the people who have contributed code to everybody over at The Consortium to people who stopped by the forum or IRC to provide feedback.
Here's to another successful year :)
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Releases Slowing Down - Not Progress
So lately, there have been very few new releases of TSM or any of its modules including alpha versions. However, rest assured that the work on the addon has done anything but slow down. I (and some periodic helpers), have been working hard on some big new features for the past few months and the work will likely continue for many weeks to come.
None of these new features will be made publicly available during the current beta phase of TSM. All these features are targeted for the release phase of TSM (which, perhaps not surprisingly, happens after the beta phase). There is a ton of work left to do before TSM goes into its release phase so it's not going to be anytime soon. We are talking about a few months, not a few weeks.
However, as it currently stands, TSM is mostly stable and bug-free which is why I made the decision to slow down the release of beta versions and instead focus on the things that need to be done for the release phase (v1.0). Of course, if a patch comes along and breaks something, I'll fix it asap in the beta versions, but otherwise, I don't plan on releasing any new beta versions.
The way I see it, the beta phase of TSM was a time for me to try a bunch of different things out, get a ton of feedback, and generally figure out a direction for the addon. I have certainly tried a ton of different things out; some of which worked and some which didn't. The feedback (both positive and negative) has been motivating and inspiring, and I now have a good grasp of the direction I want to take TSM which has guided my decisions around the new features I'm working on.
There will be a "private" testing phase before TSM (v1.0) is officially released similar to how the alpha phase worked. This has already started with one of the big new features which is in a usable state. I will make it clear when there's a chance / need for a broader audience of testers to get involved.
So, bear with me over the weeks to come and don't be too sad when you see no new version of TSM since June/July; it'll be worth the wait once v1.0 comes around!
None of these new features will be made publicly available during the current beta phase of TSM. All these features are targeted for the release phase of TSM (which, perhaps not surprisingly, happens after the beta phase). There is a ton of work left to do before TSM goes into its release phase so it's not going to be anytime soon. We are talking about a few months, not a few weeks.
However, as it currently stands, TSM is mostly stable and bug-free which is why I made the decision to slow down the release of beta versions and instead focus on the things that need to be done for the release phase (v1.0). Of course, if a patch comes along and breaks something, I'll fix it asap in the beta versions, but otherwise, I don't plan on releasing any new beta versions.
The way I see it, the beta phase of TSM was a time for me to try a bunch of different things out, get a ton of feedback, and generally figure out a direction for the addon. I have certainly tried a ton of different things out; some of which worked and some which didn't. The feedback (both positive and negative) has been motivating and inspiring, and I now have a good grasp of the direction I want to take TSM which has guided my decisions around the new features I'm working on.
There will be a "private" testing phase before TSM (v1.0) is officially released similar to how the alpha phase worked. This has already started with one of the big new features which is in a usable state. I will make it clear when there's a chance / need for a broader audience of testers to get involved.
So, bear with me over the weeks to come and don't be too sad when you see no new version of TSM since June/July; it'll be worth the wait once v1.0 comes around!
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