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Cumulus.ini (preserving history): Difference between revisions
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[[Category:Configuration Files]]
This page has been renamed to preserve the early history when Cumulus.ini page was split for Cumulus 1, MX early versions, and MX latest version.
=History of this page=
This page has proved the most complicated of all those in the Wiki to maintain:
# Settings change extremely often
#* Therefore it is a lot of effort to keep the documentation up to date
#* It is obviously easiest if an update is made here as soon as the settings change, sometimes that happens (perhaps by developer doing an update here)
# The design of configuration menus/screens/pages to edit the settings periodically changes
#* This means information about how to change settings often depends upon which release someone is using
#** In turn that means, either Cumulus users of latest release, or those using an earlier release, will struggle with the documentation
# Developers often provide limited information about settings,
#* Sometimes new settings are mentioned in an answer in a forum post, and do not get mentioned as a change in release announcements
#** This means that finding accurate information to update this page requires an awful lot of research that is very time consuming
The above observations applied for the legacy software, when Cumulus 2, and then 3 (MX), came along the documentation was originally split. When MX started (in 2019 to early 2020) to try to replicate much of what Cumulus 1 offered, it made sense to reuse what was written on this page for Cumulus 1, instead of duplicating it on a second page.
Then from mid 2020 to early 2021, there was rapid development of MX by the new developer, and MX began to increasingly diverge more and more from the legacy configuration, this page reflected that by introducing sub-sections (Cumulus 1 only, MX only, and both).
From early 2021 onwards that 3 sub-section design for this page failed because new MX releases began to diverge from earlier MX releases. In other words, parameters that had existed at an early MX release, were no longer used by later releases. It was possible, but increasingly more and more difficult, to track new parameters to add that were added at particular releases, so the documentation got more and more obsolete.
To sum up, it was impossible for this page to show information for the legacy software, for early MX releases, and for later MX releases. The response was to move off this page anaything not relevant to the latest MX release, and to restructure this page based on how MX settings are altered, rather than where a parameter appears in the file.
==Steve Loft Era==
<big>The configuration file content relating to the legacy software (e.g. 1.9.4) has been moved to [[Cumulus.ini_(Cumulus_1)|legacy page]]</big>
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
!style="width:200px" | Legacy Software 1.x.y releases
!style="width:200px" | Beta builds of legacy software
!style="width:200px" | Cumulus 2 alpha releases
!style="width:200px" | MX beta 3.0.0
|-
| This page was created for the legacy Cumulus 1 software (up to 1.9.4). If you look at the history tab of this page, user '''Shamrockspider''' created this page at 12:55 on 27 August 2009 for the purpose of '''Documenting the cumulus.ini file content and its function.'''
Back in 2009, the file was fairly simple, and therefore documentating it was also fairly easy.
Some settings were in [[Cumulus_Screenshots#Configuration_Menu_Screens|configuration screens]], and the file was arranged so that those settings were stored under a heading that generally (not in every case, for historic reasons) reflected the screen name. Documenting these was comparitively easy, the setting could be found easily and its allowed values could be easily tested.
A lot of extra settings were added to the file, but not added to the configuration screens. Documenting these was particularly difficult as only some got mentioned in release announcements, so the others were hard to discover, and allowed values were not always clear.
| Each time a beta version of Cumulus 1 was available, any parameters specific to that beta appeared in [[Cumulus.ini_(Beta)]], and only moved to the main page when that beta finished, and became the main release.
| The same beta page, [[Cumulus.ini_(Beta)]], was briefly used for Cumulus 2.
| Finally, that beta page, [[Cumulus.ini_(Beta)]], was used for all the changes in Cumulus 3 (the MX beta):
*Some of the parameters for Cumulus 1 were not used by MX beta
*Some of the parameters for Cumulus 1 were used by MX beta
*Beta MX only added 3 new parameters
This was the position when Steve Loft ceased his involvement with Cumulus. This page contained all parameters used for Cumulus 1, some of these were used by MX beta too.
The beta page contained some Cumulus 1 beta parameters that were still under development and the parameters that were only used by MX.
|}
== Mark Crossley era==
<big>The configuration file content relating to old releases has been moved to [[Cumulus.ini(MX_3.0.0_to_3.9.7)|old MX page]]</big>
'''The [[Cumulus.ini]] page now covers just the latest MX releases'''
When Mark Crossley brought MX out of beta, he started adding new features to MX:
* Some features used parameters that had been used for the legacy software
* For other new features, he created new parameters
* This page is now only for release 3.10.1 onwards
* An attempt is made to record the release that introduced each setting, both for those introduced earlier than 3.10.1, and for those introduced in later releases
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
!style="width:200px" | MX beta releases 3.0.0 to MX release 3.4.6
!style="width:200px" | MX releases 3.6.0 to 3.9.7
!style="width:200px" | MX releases 3.10.0 to 3.11.4
!style="width:200px" | MX release 3.12.0 onwards
|-
| All documentation was on the beta page, [[Cumulus.ini_(Beta)]], this was a combination of information copied from this page, and information about all the new settings introduced by MX.
This continued to be used until April 2020, when all the information was moved to this page.
| All documentation was previously on this page, it became very complicated as can be seen on [[Cumulus.ini(MX_3.0.0_to_3.9.7)|old MX page]] as some parameters were controlled by settings pages in the admin interface and some by directly editing the file.
''Please note, nobody copied the various changes to the configuration file mentioned in MX release announcements from 3.8.0 to 3.9.7 inclusive into the Wiki, if anyone can be bothered, they should be added to the documentation on that old MX page!''
| * From release 3.10.0, much of the information that was produced for earlier MX releases became invalid. Release 3.10.0 was actually withdrawn.
* Release 3.10.x added a lot of new settings, and made others redundant.
* Release 3.10.x totally rewrote all the settings pages, making past references to how you edit parameters redundant.
** Consequently, this page was emptied again, and made ready for new content to reflect how MX works from 3.10.1 onwards.
The aim of the new approach is to for all settings to be adjusted within the admin interface (sometimes called dasboard) settings pages, but in these releases there were still some settings that were simply read from the configuration file.
| * Release 3.12.0 is another major change affecting configuration documentation
*This release introduced a lot of new settings
** So more to document!
* This release moved some settings from one section in the settings pages to another
** So the page had to be redesigned again so that it was easier to maintain when settings were moved!
* This release provided places in the settings pages to alter more of the settings that had been read only
** So the page has fewer parameters that have to be edited directly in the file
|}
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