Re: [Freeciv-Dev] caravan behavior

[David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Someone once again suggested to me that goto with caravans should
popup the caravan menu when the caravan arrives.

It seems this has been requested ever since goto was implemented,
but is problematic to implement.  One problem is that if it takes 
more than one turn for the caravan to arrive, then the goto will 
"happen" at end-turn/begin-turn, when I think it would add to the 
confusion of various windows popping up at that time.  And it 
could be tricky for the user to realize which caravan(s) arrived. 

It occurs to me that currently the "Messages window" is used alot
for end-turn events which may require player attention (like cities 
finished production).  Maybe the best thing from an interface point
of view (ignoring for the moment implementation difficulty) would 
be:
  - When the goto happens "immediately", popup the usual dialog;
  - When it happen at end-of-turn, put a message in the messages 
    window ("Caravan arrived at Foo City") and have a button in the
    messages window to popup a caravan dialog.

However that would probably be considerable work to implement...
(and involve incompatability/capabilities).

Regards,
-- David

ps. Another thought: perhaps gaining tech should also put a message
in the messages window with an appropriate button, rather than
popping up that annoying (modal!) Science Advisor dialog...
(Except some people probably like the tech popup, so I guess have 
a client option...)