Tes4Mod:Wrye Bash/Miscellaneous

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Contents 1 Common Errors 1.1 Improperly Grouped 2 Python 2.1 Why Python? 2.2 But I Never Heard of Python! 3 Wrye Bash vs. OBMM

[edit] Common Errors

[edit] Improperly Grouped

This error is occasionally encountered when Bash has to scan mods for some reason (e.g. for the Remove Spells command). The error message indicates that mod file is in a somewhat non-normal format which Bash cannot read. This only happens for a few specific mods (most notably older versions of Quest Award Leveler).

Solutions

• Upgrade to newer version of the mod if available. E.g. There's a newer version of Quest Award Leveler available.
• Fix the mod. You may be able to do this by opening the mod in TESCS and resaving it. Note however, that if the mod has masters that are esps, you'll need to use "Esmify Masters" before editing it in TESCS and then use "Espify Masters" when done (right click on the mod in Bash's Mod tab for these commands).
• If all else fails, you'll need to de-activate the mod in some way.

[edit] Python

[edit] Why Python?

In short: python is powerful, easy and fast to program in, performs reasonably rapidly, provides small uploads/downloads, is tweakable by end users, is open source, requires no special programming tools, works well both for tiny little cli programs and fairly large gui programs, is very well supported, is cross-platform. For end users, there are several distinct advantages:

• Small download size for repeated downloads. I'm on the eighth version of Bash in about two weeks. Download size is 111 kb. So, if you're keeping up with my releases, there's no significant download cost (other than the first python/wxPython download).
• Very transparent. As end user, you know exactly what's files are going where with python. And you can look at the code itself (in fact, the download is the source code -- that's what those .py files are.
• User tweakable/debuggable code. Because users have the source code and can edit it with a plain text editor, they can tweak it to test/fix it. Obviously, people have already found this useful for dealing with directory problems, but it's also useful to me (and thus to them), since it allows users to help me with tweaking/debugging code. This was tremendously useful with Mash, and is already showing up with Bash.

[edit] But I Never Heard of Python!

Python is open source, which means that the money spent on marketing python is zero. So ordinary users are unlikely to have heard of it. Contrast this with Java and .Net which have had huge amounts of marketing cash spent on them. If you'd like to have a few testimonials, here you. You'll find more at python.org.

Eve Online

Python enabled us to create EVE Online, a massive multiplayer game, in record time. The EVE Online server cluster runs over 25,000 simultaneous players in a shared space simulation, most of which is created in Python. The flexibilities of Python have enabled us to quickly improve the game experience based on player feedback... --Hilmar Veigar Petursson of CCP Games

Google

Python has been an important part of Google since the beginning, and remains so as the system grows and evolves. Today dozens of Google engineers use Python, and we're looking for more people with skills in this language. --Peter Norvig, director of search quality at Google, Inc.

[edit] Wrye Bash vs. OBMM

Wrye Bash and OBMM (Oblivion Mod Manager) primarily overlap in regards to mod ordering. Users who have been using OBMM primarily for load ordering and then switch to using Wrye Bash for that task may find little need to continue using OBMM. However, users who make good use of OBMM's other features (mod installation, BSA archiving, etc.) will likely continue to use OBMM (though perhaps less frequently).

Load Ordering

OBMM offers drag and drop ordering, which Bash does not. Bash offers several ways of reordering files: explict date changing, ctrl-up/down arrow, File: Sort, File: Redate, and (more recently) Balo (Bash Auto Load Ordering). If you want drag and drop explict control, then OBMM is the way to go. However, Bash's Lock Times and Balo are both extremely convenient. In addition, Balo is heading towards supporting a "standardized" load order, which should help all users.

Mod Installation/Removal

Wrye Bash's Replacers feature can be used for installing/removing replacer style mods. However, the feature is less efficient than OBMM's mod install/uninstall functionality. It also is 'not designed to act as a general mod installer/uninstaller. OTOH, Bash's File: Hide function allows you to de-clutter your data directory without actually uninstalling the mod. For additional comparison see Wrye Bash: Replacers vs. File Hide.

Archive Invalidation

For archive invalidation (needed sometimes for texture replacers), OBMM uses Quarn's method, which is somewhat superior to the older solution that Bash uses. However, in terms of workability, there's probably not a huge difference between the approaches.