constructive criticism, LOVE the addon, KEEP up the good work!

[xekon]

This is just constructive criticism, LOVE the addon, KEEP up the good work! my biggest issue is trying to get it to run low resource mode.

I consider this addon to be one of my cant live without addons.

I love the minimap and main map integration. I love the battleground maps.

I love the resource gather routing. I love the quest tracking (purple button).

I also love that the map shows things like travel connections mailboxes etc.

But really.... the features above are the only ones I need or use.

If you use something like Broker_CPU you can do cpu profilling of your addons.... carbonite uses TEN TIMES as much as any of my other addons. in both cpu time and memory...

Now I am thinking if I really use a fine tooth comb and go through the options that there is quite a bit I can turn off to get this a little more respectable. Also if the addon chat channel... you know the one you never see but that addons communicate through.... this addon causes me to disconnect from time to time because of how much it sends through there...

I have heard that there used to be a lite version of this, but that its easier to maintain just one version. I think I agree with the one version feature... I think instead it would be great if all the options to turn off the features you didnt want or need were easy to find and all in one place if possible... that way I could just go down a list turning things off.

Reallly what I want most is to keep all the features that I like without it costing so much resources.

[OmegaExtreme]

In the short term what Carbonite needs is a redesign of the options menu its confusing and not very descriptive and... ugly. Keep it short, to the point and shiny.

In the long term Carbontie NEEDS to be completly rewritten from the ground up.

A rewrite SHOULD be.

-Written so that anyone can read the code without having to decode it or know the cryptkey etc.

-Split into different moduels (this cramming everything into the one file is very unprofessional and looks very untidy).

-Users need to be given more control over what they want enabled and what they don't want enabled: like for me I dont like the carbonite minimap and I hate having to press the Carbonite minimap button to hide it ever time i press M to view the big Carbonite map.

-Split Carbonite into sepparate "AddOns" ie
*-CarboniteCore (Core code needed for Carbonite to work)
*--CarboniteMaps (including routing and gathering)
*--CarbonitePvP (Battleground maps and Punks)
*--CarbonitePvE (Instance/Raids maps)
*--CarboniteQuests (Quest Data and Locs)
*--CarboniteWarehouse
*--CaroniteUI (controls what menus (Social) are integrated into Carbonite)

The above section is just a general idea of what I reccomend gets done im sure Arty and the guys have other ideas or they'll just give me the silent treatment and do what they want to do.

Carbonite is a powerful addon but IMHO its current implementation is sub-optimal and (for lack of a better word) messy.

Edit: Typos.

[Vlad]

Remember that Carbonite was obfuscated before, so this is a remnant from that time. I think they keep the code this unclear on purpose; so people can't grab it and take code. So instead they name the variables weird things to make it more confusing, removing spaces, new lines, e.g.

But I agree, I'd like to have LOD modules, it would be a huge performance booster in some cases. Never the less good job on coding it, I wonder what IDE they use... hehe.

[OmegaExtreme]

Originally Posted by Vladinator Remember that Carbonite was obfuscated before, so this is a remnant from that time. I think they keep the code this unclear on purpose; so people can't grab it and take code. So instead they name the variables weird things to make it more confusing, removing spaces, new lines, e.g.

2) Add-on code must be completely visible. The programming code of an add-on must in no way be hidden or obfuscated, and must be freely accessible to and viewable by the general public.

Source

Obfuscation (or beclouding) is the hiding of intended meaning in communication, making communication confusing, wilfully ambiguous, and harder to interpret

Source

Just another reason why Carbonite MUST be re-coded.

Either the devs are

a) Working on a Carbonite2 that complies with what MUST be done

b) Are not yet fully aware of the policy which has been inplace for over a year

c) Are deliberately ignoring this part of the Add-On Development Policy

[Vlad]

Yes, but they already stopped to obfuscate the code, what is left is just the visible code, even if hard to read there is no terms to make sure the code is easily readable, only visible -and it is. :P

But from a programmer point of view, it's good to keep the code nicely formatted and separated into functions and modules, it's good to be organized.

Just an example, this is not obfuscated code:
local a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n={},1,5,2,{[2]=3},23,4,5,1,2,{[9]=0},{}
f,g,m,n=g*2-c*e*9,g*g*c*e+12+3+i,f+b+c+b*a,a+b-c*d*e*f*g
print(f,g,m,n)
I just used hard to read variables and put stuff in a really weird way, it's just hard to interpret for us.

This on the other hand is obfuscated code:
local z='<lots of weird data>'
-- some decode function that decodes z
RunScript(z)
Now imagine that the new z is again yet another long weird string, that includes it's own decode function and run's it's new code again, do this 8 times until you get the real source. It's recursive, it's impossible to read, this is obfuscation at it's finest.

But I agree, you could perhaps say Carbonite is obfuscated but considering they already removed the whole encryption part I think they are allowed to have their code weirdly written... though doesn't this collide with WoWInterface rules of coding? Like you shouldn't have weird and hidden code, e.g. it's hard to read, I mean if I had made an addon like my first example I'm sure they would object putting it up. :P

[OmegaExtreme]

Also wouldnt all the extra code used to hide (or make hard to read) the code just increase the addons load time thus increasing CPU usage and also annoying users.

If the addon was written with out all the secret codes and formatted into seperate moduels not only would it run more efficiently but it would make things easier on the authors AND make users happier .

[OmegaExtreme]

i really thought the devs would have commented by now they're usually all up in arms over any type of criticism on carbonite.

[Vlad]

Not much to say, except "that's correct" with the usual "we have had this on our list but isn't a main priority right now" :P

[OmegaExtreme]

Originally Posted by Vladinator Not much to say, except "that's correct" with the usual "we have had this on our list but isn't a main priority right now" :P

Quoted For Truth.