Support for Heroforge?

[maull]

Heroforge Anew has been recently revived and it works only on Excel. From reading information on the websites around, the problem seems to be macros not functioning. How do I or the developers get it working properly? I understand that it is a Herculean task. Is it possible for an extension to be written for the task?

Heroforge is an Excel application that was designed to build, track, change, and print Player Characters for Dungeons & Dragons version 3.5 in all of its variety.

Thank you, your my only hope.

I am not affiliated with the site or the program development. I do not code or get into the inner workings of the computer. I am an end user who would like to dump "MS everything".
The web address is:
https://sites.google.com/site/heroforgeanew/

[Villeroy]

This has nothing to do with UX. You've got a software that requires MS Excel as kind of "operating system" because the developer wrote this for this particular environment and without even thinking of any other spreadsheet application.
Use it or lose it.

[MTP]

The APIs (commands the program accepts) for Excel are very different from the APIs for Calc. "Translating" the code for a large program would be a very time-intensive task. Anyone attempting this translation would need a copy of the original source code, good knowledge of the Calc APIs, and (unless the code is very thoroughly commented) good knowledge of the Excel APIs as well (to be able to figure out what the original code is doing in order to translate it).

[Villeroy]

The APIs (commands the program accepts) for Excel are very different from the APIs for Calc. "Translating" the code for a large program would be a very time-intensive task. Anyone attempting this translation would need a copy of the original source code, good knowledge of the Calc APIs, and (unless the code is very thoroughly commented) good knowledge of the Excel APIs as well (to be able to figure out what the original code is doing in order to translate it).

... and a good knowledge of the game in question.

[Heliomance]

Hi, I'm the HeroForge dev. Found this thread from my site referrals tracker! I'm actually considering trying the challenge of adapting it. I know nothing of the Calc APIs though, unfortunately! I gather that OpenOffice can recognise Python, which I do know, and I've found a Python library which can make it interact with Excel, so the (possibly over-optimistic) goal is to translate the VBA code into Python and (if I'm very, very lucky) somehow end up with an app that can run on both Excel and OpenOffice.

People that know more about such things - is this a remotely realistic goal, or should I give up now?

[MTP]

The minor issue is the VBA syntax. The major issue is the difference in the APIs. While using Python would solve the problems with OpenOffice not recognizing certain VBA syntax, you'd still need to learn the Calc APIs and write separate lines of code for each application (Calc vs. Excel).

A good resource for OpenOffice APIs is the book "OpenOffice macros explained" by Andrew Pitonyak. It is available as a free download from http://www.pitonyak.org/oo.php. While the book's examples are in StarBasic, you can probably use it to understand the API names and how they are called and plug that into your knowledge of Python.

[Heliomance]

Is there any way to write a single app that will function in both Excel and OpenOffice, or will I have to have separate files for them? Essentially, can I put in code that will detect what it's being run on, and execute the right commands accordingly?

[Villeroy]

Write a program that does not depend on any spreadsheet application. This might be the easiest and most compatible solution.
That totally overstreched spreadsheet looks like a database application without database. Well, it is a database in fact.

[MTP]

Yes, you can put in code that will detect what it's being run on. The Pitonyak document has some examples of this, something along the lines of "If Document.supportsService(com.star.somethingOrOther) Then It_Is_Calc Else It_Is_Not_Calc". In your case, it's probably safe to assume that if the "is this Calc" test fails then what's running is Excel.

[Villeroy]

Delphi: Dual unit to use Excel or OOo Calc transparently (shudder)

[Heliomance]

Write a program that does not depend on any spreadsheet application. This might be the easiest and most compatible solution.
That totally overstreched spreadsheet looks like a database application without database. Well, it is a database in fact.

I know Excel a lot better than I know any databases! I am planning to start working towards making it more sensibly designed, starting with stripping out all the data tables and (hopefully) much of the code into external files,and maybe eventually transitioning to a proper database. It's a long term goal though, because I really don't how to go about doing that properly.