.ZIP Programs and coding tools recommended for modding

Modding
#1

So far, I found out that some Korean .ZIP Programs corrupts the mod file since the zipping(?) mechanisms can be different.

Could you guys recommend me more proper .ZIP Programs? (Or any ways to make the mod to .smod format)
Also, I would really like to use different coding tool rather than the notepad++.

#2

Winrar or 7zip are ideal for zipping files. as for Notepad++ its one of the best you’ll get honestly. Alot of coders use it because of how versatile it is.

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#3

I use VS Code for Stonehearth mod editing. It is available for free.

#4

I think even windows zip would work? As long as it is a .zip (not other formats like .rar) it should work.

For editors, I used notepad++ for so long, until I got sublime, the first thing you will notice is how prettier and much better readability it offers with its syntax highlight. That alone sold it to me. :slight_smile:

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#5

Visual Studios is masterrace. But sadly it’s not free.

I don’t know if I could ever go back though

#6

The community edition is! For any modding you’re doing, it will work great. The paid versions are much bigger than anything needed for Stonehearth.

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#7

Hey @BrunoSupremo,

How does sublime handle Lua and Handlebars syntax highlighting? Good support?

#8

Not sure about Handlebars, but here is how one of my lua files looks.

Pasted image1356Ă—732 122 KB

For me it is very easy to the eyes and I liked the theme. (Of course, it is not only looks, there is a handful of good functions in it)

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#9

I like winrar. I like it so much that I registered it, even though it has no blocked features when used free (it does have a nag window that does nothing else though). For editing, I just stick to simple Notepad++ (at home that is) :slight_smile:

EDIT: adding something potentially “related”.
I use Node JS for fast and dirty scripting. E.g. automatically find and pull resources from stonehearth.smod (unzipped), or generate some basic “template” that I can further manually edit. Even considering just generating simple mods at some point, so that I don’t have to check/change mods every update.

#10

I used Notepad++ until I got annoyed by the activism of the sole maintainer (while I don’t disagree with the crap he puts into the program sometimes, I don’t really want to read it while I’m working). Then I switched to Sublime, and got annoyed by the popups to buy it. Now I use Atom, and I haven’t looked back. Its open nature and tons of packages make it possible to get it to behave just like your favourite code editor (I started with mimicking sublime, then customized it into my own thing).

And, of course, it’s free.

#11

The Atom is kinda heavy, but still awesome! thanks for the sharing!

#12

Hey, for all your compression needs 7-zip is a very good tool to pick: http://www.7-zip.org/

For coding a lightweight but powerful tool is Sublime Text: https://www.sublimetext.com/ (Not free but can be tested quite indefinitely?! Don’t really understand their way of licensing)

Of course for an overpowered IDE that can like do anything you can always use Eclipse: Eclipse - The Eclipse Foundation open source community website.

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