Pathfinder Parser

[Bidmaron]

As for Paizo doing a VTT, I guess it's possible, but we've seen no evidence they are interested in software development so far. And, as WOTC has learned the hard way, it is an enormous undertaking. Paizo seems to be doing well enough without it.

As for paizo changing their layout, as you previously pointed out, it is OGL. The products of the parser wouldn't change just because they changed formatting. The worst result is that you couldn't parse new material until the parser was updated. I don't know where Tenian's blog is, so I don't know what abuse he's talking about.

The Pathfinder extension will undoubtedly require rewrite after the rules merger.

[Astinus]

I'm sorry, but which extension are you talking about?

btw, I can't believe there isn't more PF interest here, but I suspect it's because we don't have the user effort going into it. The most active board on HeroLab is not 4e, it is PF.

It seems from later comments that you might have found it, but if not the extension would be here: https://oberoten.dyndns.org/fgwiki/i...nder_Extension

And I too am surprised at the lack of Pathfinder activity here. I'm sure it will grow, however.

[Bidmaron]

It seems from later comments that you might have found it, but if not the extension would be here: https://oberoten.dyndns.org/fgwiki/i...nder_Extension

Oh, I already knew about that, just had forgotten its author was Madman, so I didn't understand you were referring to the PF extension.

[Bidmaron]

Perhaps another thing that would help is if we get our own slot in the Game Systems (since defunct things like Iron Heroes and Arcana Unleashed got one).
Smiteworks, can we get it?

[EugeneZ]

Since Tenian hasn't responded here, I'm gonna hope he doesn't get too angry at me for posting. I hope he proves me wrong, but in my conversations with Tenian regarding open source, he was strongly against publishing his own source code. I'll ask him about it later but I'm guessing the response will be a "no." He would probably be open to writing the parser himself, if it wasn't for the fact that he does not like Pathfinder. But I'm pretty sure he would be totally against releasing his code.

[Bidmaron]

Well, that is unfortunate. Understandable, but unfortunate. We have to respect those who take the time to make tools that some can use. That will slow down the effort to do something with PF. Oh, well....

[Leonal]

I agree that something to quickly insert stat blocks would be desirable as many published npcs deviate from what you find in the bestiary(ies). Possibilities to import NPCs or even PCs exported from Herolab xml files would also be great.

[Astinus]

I've been chatting with bradbdavis -- he wrote a Pathfinder parser in Visual Studio. He's only used it for a bestiary, but he's happy to share his source code here and maybe someone else can continue work on it? Hopefully we hear from him soon.

[Zeus]

Whilst having Tenian's 4EParser source code available as a reference would be very useful (It is a boon to have it for the 4E ruleset - Thanks J), a significant amount (I believe) would have to be re-written to make it applicable to Pathfinder/d20 therefore negating some of the benefit of using his hard work as a springboard.

Its perfectly possible to write an XSL or .NET based tool that performs a similar function but for alternative natural language source formats and XML output.

The XSL route is doable, if the source is available in HTML/XML format, Text less so if purely plain text but maybe possible if the format is structured.

However I think its best to go the .NET route for a couple of reasons. 1) XSL can be limiting in certain situations and 2) I think it would be more useful to write a tool that would support a variety of rulesets thus enabling Parsing to the wider FGII ruleset community as well as encourage greater development of new rulesets etc. etc. .NET offers this flexibility if we assume most if not all RPG source material is available in plain text.

It might be possible to write a .NET based tool using regular expression matching and thus regular expressions to define npc, item, etc. etc. stat block formats. By allowing users to define both the regular expressions and an XML schema for the output it might be possible for ruleset developers/community users to build module templates (incorporating both the set of regular expressions for matching the source content types and the XML schema required for ruleset compatibility) to enable Parsing support for any ruleset.

Of course the whole thing is also only doable if the RPG your using publishes content type in a structured and consistent manner however still worthwhile investigating methinks if theres wide enough interest from the community.

[Astinus]

The Pathfinder parser bradbdavis has written is in .NET, I believe. So maybe it will serve as a good base? As soon as I get it from him, I'll post details here.