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New decisions feature

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New decisions feature 16/11/2017 at 23:00 #102961
clive
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The 4.6.5 loader release, when it is made, will include a new feature for decisions.

It will now be possible to make a choice based on whether a particular scenario is in use or a particular option has been selected. To do this, when setting up a choice in a timetable, use a decision name of "[NSC!xxxxx]" (without the quotes) and a choice name of "Y" or "N" (again without the quotes). The xxxxx is replaced by a code that will be specified by the simulation author. A choice of Y will be chosen if the scenario or option has been selected, and a choice of N will be used if it has not.

Until 4.6.5 is released, you can test this by creating decisions in the decisions tab using these names. 4.6.5 and onwards will not allow you to use these decision names in the decisions tab and the analyser will complain about any already there.

As I said, the list of codes will be provided by the simulation developer. I have updated the Peterborough manual to give the codes; for example [NSC!NBIDI] tests whether the Spalding bi-feature (down trains to Spalding can run on the Up Slow) is available.

Enjoy!

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The following users said thank you: postal, VInce, 58050, BarryM
New decisions feature 17/11/2017 at 00:29 #102963
postal
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Tried it on Peterborough. Most of it works properly but when I use [NSC!NOLD] it is always generating a N decision whether the original or Spalding bi-di layout is selected.
“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
Last edited: 17/11/2017 at 00:30 by postal
Reason: None given

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New decisions feature 17/11/2017 at 07:15 #102970
clive
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Um, where did you get a 4.6.5 loader from?
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New decisions feature 17/11/2017 at 09:27 #102973
postal
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clive in post 102970 said:
Um, where did you get a 4.6.5 loader from?
I didn't get v4.6.5 from anywhere, I'm using v4.6.4.

As per the third paragraph of your OP at 23:00 yesterday. I have created my own decisions using the specified format in a test TT for v4.6.4 as v4.6.5 should throw an error if such a manually entered decision was found. Decisions manually created in v4.6.4 are all appearing to work correctly (allowing/inhibiting entry of train depending on scenario/closures etc) except for the NOLD key word which always returns N decision.

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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New decisions feature 17/11/2017 at 13:17 #102977
clive
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postal in post 102973 said:

I didn't get v4.6.5 from anywhere, I'm using v4.6.4.

As per the third paragraph of your OP at 23:00 yesterday. I have created my own decisions using the specified format in a test TT for v4.6.4 as v4.6.5 should throw an error if such a manually entered decision was found. Decisions manually created in v4.6.4 are all appearing to work correctly (allowing/inhibiting entry of train depending on scenario/closures etc) except for the NOLD key word which always returns N decision.
Okay.

4.6.4 doesn't understand any of this stuff, so you need to force the decision to match the choice you made using the appropriate button. It will be treating this like any other decision, so you need to check the details of what you've done (have you set weights? have you misspelled something?). What I meant was that you can test your timetables, not the new feature, using the existing mechanisms.

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New decisions feature 17/11/2017 at 13:21 #102978
clive
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I've managed to get a third thing in: as well as scenarios and features you can also test on whether chains are present or not. The decision name for these is "[EXT!xxxxx]".

However, testing shows that, even if you start the simulation paused, seeding is done before the user has an opportunity to set up a chain. So at present you can't use this to control seeding. But you can use it for everything else. If I can see how to fix that (Mantis 18467), I will.

Last edited: 17/11/2017 at 13:24 by clive
Reason: None given

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New decisions feature 17/11/2017 at 15:09 #102986
postal
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clive in post 102977 said:
4.6.4 doesn't understand any of this stuff, so you need to force the decision to match the choice you made using the appropriate button. It will be treating this like any other decision, so you need to check the details of what you've done (have you set weights? have you misspelled something?). What I meant was that you can test your timetables, not the new feature, using the existing mechanisms.
Very strange. I cut and pasted last night so don't think I had any finger trouble and was consistently getting N when the decision [NSC!NOLD] was called no matter what layout was selected. However, I am now running test TT and [NSC!NOLD] is responding correctly so I can confirm that choices from Scenarios, Closures in force, Scale of problems and Layout all seem to be working as expected. I haven't tried the Other choices.

By and large looks an excellent innovation so thanks for the work.

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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New decisions feature 17/11/2017 at 18:22 #102989
clive
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postal in post 102986 said:

Very strange. I cut and pasted last night so don't think I had any finger trouble and was consistently getting N when the decision [NSC!NOLD] was called no matter what layout was selected. However, I am now running test TT and [NSC!NOLD] is responding correctly so I can confirm that choices from Scenarios, Closures in force, Scale of problems and Layout all seem to be working as expected. I haven't tried the Other choices.
I still don't understand. 4.6.4 doesn't understand any of this stuff, so you've just set up normal decisions. Unless you're going in and forcibly selecting Y or N to match your startup options, it will just select at random when a train first needs it.

The "testing" bit was for you to test your timetables would be error free ready for 4.6.5. There is no way for you to confirm that choices from (say) Scenarios are working correctly because 4.6.4 doesn't know what that means. If you change "NOLD" to "FRED" throughout your timetable, it will work on 4.6.4 (but not when 4.6.5 comes out).

postal in post 102986 said:

By and large looks an excellent innovation so thanks for the work.
Thanks.

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New decisions feature 17/11/2017 at 18:55 #102990
postal
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clive in post 102989 said:
I still don't understand. 4.6.4 doesn't understand any of this stuff, so you've just set up normal decisions. Unless you're going in and forcibly selecting Y or N to match your startup options, it will just select at random when a train first needs it.

The "testing" bit was for you to test your timetables would be error free ready for 4.6.5. There is no way for you to confirm that choices from (say) Scenarios are working correctly because 4.6.4 doesn't know what that means. If you change "NOLD" to "FRED" throughout your timetable, it will work on 4.6.4 (but not when 4.6.5 comes out).
Misunderstood what you meant by testing. Apologies for being on the wrong wavelength. Ran half a dozen tests last night using different codes from the Peterborough manual and 5 of them appeared to produce the correct Y or N choice. Might be a good time to take up roulette.

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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New decisions feature 17/11/2017 at 22:35 #103002
clive
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One more thing, done on the flight home, that will be in 4.6.5: if you have an ordinary decision with choices Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun, say, then when you use it in a timetable or activity you can now put things like "[any] Wed | Fri | Sat" or "[not] Tue | Thu". The former will trigger if any of the named choices is the actual choice made; the latter if none of them are.
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New decisions feature 18/11/2017 at 09:30 #103010
VInce
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clive in post 103002 said:
One more thing, done on the flight home, that will be in 4.6.5: if you have an ordinary decision with choices Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun, say, then when you use it in a timetable or activity you can now put things like "[any] Wed | Fri | Sat" or "[not] Tue | Thu". The former will trigger if any of the named choices is the actual choice made; the latter if none of them are.
Just what I've been waiting for Clive.

In the 1977 Peterborough v1.01 there are around 680 rules - I reckon this will reduce that figure by about 200 or so for when I release v 1.02

Great, thanks

Vince

I walk around inside the questions of my day, I navigate the inner reaches of my disarray, I pass the altars where fools and thieves hold sway, I wait for night to come and lift this dread away : Jackson Browne - The Night Inside Me
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New decisions feature 18/11/2017 at 23:47 #103057
KymriskaDraken
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I've just tried this with a Decision called [NSC!NSNOW]. When I try to add the Decision I get a dialog saying "Decision names beginning with '[' are reserved". It then adds "[de-reserved] to the start of the name, and does not choose when the sim is launched with that scenario active.

Am I doing something wrong?

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New decisions feature 19/11/2017 at 00:30 #103059
postal
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KymriskaDraken in post 103057 said:
I've just tried this with a Decision called [NSC!NSNOW]. When I try to add the Decision I get a dialog saying "Decision names beginning with '[' are reserved". It then adds "[de-reserved] to the start of the name, and does not choose when the sim is launched with that scenario active.

Am I doing something wrong?
If you've manually tried to create the decision then I think you are doing more work than you need to. If I've understood Clive's various postings correctly, the core code will silently "create" a background decision for each of the scenarios, closures etc. Therefore you don't need to create a decision as the core code has already done it. All you need to do is got to the train TT and enter the decision name in the format provided by Clive then the choice (Y if the train is to enter when that scenario/closure is invoked or N if it is not).

Of course I'm open to correction if I've shot from the lip again.

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
Last edited: 19/11/2017 at 09:16 by postal
Reason: None given

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New decisions feature 19/11/2017 at 00:37 #103060
postal
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VInce in post 103010 said:
In the 1977 Peterborough v1.01 there are around 680 rules - I reckon this will reduce that figure by about 200 or so for when I release v 1.02
Managed to take out 300 rules and 5 DotW seed trains in the current piece of work. Haven't tested it yet so optimism could have overtaken practicality but looking better than good so far.

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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New decisions feature 19/11/2017 at 09:39 #103065
KymriskaDraken
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postal in post 103059 said:
KymriskaDraken in post 103057 said:
I've just tried this with a Decision called [NSC!NSNOW]. When I try to add the Decision I get a dialog saying "Decision names beginning with '[' are reserved". It then adds "[de-reserved] to the start of the name, and does not choose when the sim is launched with that scenario active.

Am I doing something wrong?
If you've manually tried to create the decision then I think you are doing more work than you need to. If I've understood Clive's various postings correctly, the core code will silently "create" a background decision for each of the scenarios, closures etc. Therefore you don't need to create a decision as the core code has already done it. All you need to do is got to the train TT and enter the decision name in the format provided by Clive then the choice (Y if the train is to enter when that scenario/closure is invoked or N if it is not).

Of course I'm open to correction if I've shot from the lip again.
I tried that and the analyser complained that the decision did not exist. It worked with the Peterborough sim so I will double-check the name with the developer.


Kev

Last edited: 19/11/2017 at 10:04 by KymriskaDraken
Reason: None given

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New decisions feature 19/11/2017 at 10:06 #103066
postal
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Kev

Which sim? I've just been running some quick tests on Peterborough using the codes given by Clive in the manual and things seem to be working OK.

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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New decisions feature 19/11/2017 at 10:45 #103068
clive
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postal in post 103059 said:
KymriskaDraken in post 103057 said:
When I try to add the Decision I get a dialog saying "Decision names beginning with '[' are reserved".
If you've manually tried to create the decision then I think you are doing more work than you need to. If I've understood Clive's various postings correctly, the core code will silently "create" a background decision for each of the scenarios, closures etc. Therefore you don't need to create a decision as the core code has already done it. All you need to do is got to the train TT and enter the decision name in the format provided by Clive then the choice (Y if the train is to enter when that scenario/closure is invoked or N if it is not).
That's correct. And that's why you can't create a decision with that name.

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New decisions feature 19/11/2017 at 11:31 #103070
KymriskaDraken
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postal in post 103066 said:
Kev

Which sim? I've just been running some quick tests on Peterborough using the codes given by Clive in the manual and things seem to be working OK.
It's a sim under devcelopment.


Kev

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New decisions feature 19/11/2017 at 19:52 #103084
clive
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KymriskaDraken in post 103070 said:
postal in post 103066 said:
Kev

Which sim? I've just been running some quick tests on Peterborough using the codes given by Clive in the manual and things seem to be working OK.
It's a sim under devcelopment.


Kev
Get the developer to email me directly.

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New decisions feature 19/11/2017 at 21:51 #103089
KymriskaDraken
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clive in post 103084 said:
KymriskaDraken in post 103070 said:
postal in post 103066 said:
Kev

Which sim? I've just been running some quick tests on Peterborough using the codes given by Clive in the manual and things seem to be working OK.
It's a sim under devcelopment.


Kev
Get the developer to email me directly.
It's sorted now Clive. I was reading a | for a ! in the decision name.


Kev

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