[Freeciv-Dev] Re: 1.13.0/gtk client (PR#1823)

[Raimar Falke <rf13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Jul 24, 2002 at 10:51:08PM -0400, Kenn Munro wrote:
> On Wed, 2002-07-24 at 15:26, Rodolfo Borges wrote:
> > - on the help system, for tecnologies, the printf'ed phrase at the
> >    beggining of the help contents makes other important information
> >    less visible. for ex, the help for nuclear power, wich says it
> >    gives the sea units one extra move.
> >    the fact that most tecnologies does not have an extra text
> >    just makes it worse, it leads the user to not pay attention to that part.
> 
> I also agree that some less-wordy text at the top would make it easier
> to catch the important information.  Something like:
> Prerequisites: 10     Total bulbs: 4000
> I think the "this number may vary depending on.." line could be dropped
> too.

In my first patch I wrote:

> > +       _("%d bulbs %s are required for this tech only."
> > +         "Total costs are %d bulbs. " "Depends on %d other techs. "
> > +         "You need to research %d other techs first.\n"),

Gregory pointed then out:

> 3. You don't have to be so laconic.  It's a help text, not an order. So I
> suggest
> "To reach $NAME_OF_TECH we need to obtain $NUM_REQ other technologies
> first.  The whole project will require $TOTAL_BUBLBLBLS to complete.
> This number may vary depending on what other players will research."

> Another change I think might be useful is to have a toggle button in the
> tech help that would show a big text box in place of the current tree
> view (and toggle back to the tree view), unless they could both be
> squeezed into the same screen.  The text box could be used for a
> description (and history) of the tech.  Example: "bronze working - alloy
> of copper and tin; dates back to 3000 BC; allowed improved armor and
> weapons.."  Both interesting and educational.  It would require a
> helptext line be added for each tech in techs.rulesets.  I'd be willing
> to start putting together some descriptions if someone makes the change
> to the help browser.

There where other attempts at extended helptexts. Main problem was
copyright. IMHO you can start today with the helptexts. These will be
displayed with the current code. Then somecan can code the button and
the larger text area.

        Raimar

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 email: rf13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 "Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
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