Deprecate LANGAUTO in favor of AUTO:LANG

Devon - Can we make this one the Last Week of December?

This syntax includes a lot of stuff that is not currently listed for the other AUTO tags. Is that intentional?

Are the docs incorrect in not including these syntax elements/functionality in those doc entries?

Does it really make sence to include the !TYPE syntax? You're NOT going to grant these languages? (Hm, maybe if we include a PRExxx at the end that would make sense.)

Several of the other AUTO tags will take PRExxx tags but they must be contained within square brackets ([]). Is this syntax going to carry over to this tag?

Finally, considering the differences, might this be a first step to standardizing the AUTO tag format?

This is standardized Syntax that Tom was working with for the CHOOSE rebuild http://wiki.pcgen.org/Architecture_Changes_5.17#CHOOSE_Rebuild

AUTO tags don't take PRExxx. Though I agree, the !TYPE is a bit odd, perhaps the intent was meant to be

AUTO:LANG|ALL|!TYPE=Latin
Would grant all Languages, except Latin?

Though I'm not sure. It may be extra fluff.

Per the docs the AUTO tags do take PRExxx tags but they must be in square brackets. If they no longer take them we need to confirm that and get a tracker in to fix it, one way or the other,

Uhg, Brackets. Perhaps we could move to PIPE PRExxx standard like BONUS uses then. That would enable PREMULT support.

I think the reason this wasn't done previously was that AUTO: doesn't support .CLEAR, and LANGAUTO does.

The problem being that there can be multiple AUTO: tags, and thus we end up with having to implement AUTO:LANG|.CLEAR ... which is more complicated than just a simple token swap (and clears come with consequences to the loading system...). It also becomes a problem because LANGUAGE: became AUTO:LANG, so on the off chance of something having both LANGUAGE: and LANGAUTO: .... we end up with a .CLEAR changing something that it didn't change previously.

Yes, the syntax (%LIST and the like) is intentional, and some of it is already implemented.... it was done to support the ability to select a LANGUAGE in a CHOOSE and then grant the language to the character (done as part of converting LANGUAGE)

IMHO, This FREQ should not include PRExxx support - it is designed to do the conversion from LANGAUTO (Which will have its own set of issues per above) and the PRExxx thing can be added later (could be a separate NEWTAG item if required). I'm happy to be overridden on this if Devon is up for doing the PRExxx work as well.

Note that the intended (future) PRExxx format is a trailing pipe: AUTO:BLAH|<name>|PRExxx:Foo,1
^^^ this is supported on AUTO:FEAT, while AUTO:*PROF uses the old brackets... again another FREQ to be done (we should check if those are in the NEWTAG queue)
The PRExxx behavior tags on AUTO: is not universal, just as a note.

As Andrew says, !TYPE=Latin would return all items that are not TYPE=Latin... That !TYPE= syntax is supported just about everywhere TYPE= is supported, even though it is rarely used.

Okay I'm going to make this a two PHASE project then. I'll open a second tracker for the inclusion of PRExxx using the PIPE standard.

Rev 16760

We need clear docs on how conversion is handled. I see no link to a discussion that addresses my concern above regarding .CLEAR

Sorry, that's my miss. I talked with andrew on how I can make a test case for myself. I'll try to fix .CLEAR this weekend.

Is it standard for the dev to write the docs?

My plan will be to have .CLEAR only clear languages from AUTO:LANG - it's using a different Key, so it's not a big deal.

Devon, it depends on what you mean by docs. As the Doc 2nd I can, and do, work to add the appropriate docs to the User Docs. If you include a detailed treatment of how your changes effect how the tags work I can go from there. Otherwise I will need to bug you for more info. Just ask Tom . . .

Depracation notes have been added but not published. (They are currently commented out)
svn #16818

I still need to add the appropriate notes on LANGAUTO to cover the conversion.

Conversion guidance has been added but is commented out. I'll do the final update when I get word that the .CLEAR works as planned.
svn #16826

Devon, did you get .CLEAR fixed for this tag?

Sorry, work's been a disaster, I've been working for the past 3 weeks straight. As soon as I have an actual weekend day it's top of my list.

.CLEAR is now fixed. kicking back yo you Eric.

Added deprecation and conversion notes to LANGAUTO tags (GlobalOther and Template)
svn #16868

Ready for PrettyLST

Completed: At revision: 16903