[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#949) city report fields don't sort well

[Christian Knoke <chrisk@xxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Nov 14, 2002 at 12:24:56AM -0800, Jason Short via RT wrote:
> 
> Raimar told me not to overengineer on this one, but I really can't help
> myself...
> 
> The city report dialog is freeciv's best micro/macro management tool,

Yes.

> yet it is IMO crippled in its current state.  This really needs to be
> addressed.

I wouldn't say crippled, but it can be improved.

> The problem with the patches provided so far is that they only try to
> treat the existing (text) fields of the city report as numerical fields,
> by scanning them for numerical data.  Worse still, they will only work
> for one GUI (gui-gtk).
> 
> One alternative is to take the existing patches, and use them to provide
> a GUI-independent comparison function.  The functions provided by the
> patches do essentially the same thing: provide a comparison function to
> compare two strings that may or may not be integers.  This function
> could be used by all GUIs (at their option) to implement better sorting.
>  A combination of the two existing patches (using Raimar's comparison
> code with Christian's GTK code) would be my preference.
> 
> This is probably a first step.

That's IMO a good thing.

> But a lot more is possible, IMO.
> 
> The above design will allow sorting of simple numeric fields, and in
> conjunction with Tuomas Airaksinen's patch to give the city report more
> available fields (already applied), this may be sufficient.  But
> consider the "Surplus F/P/T" field.  Under the simple design above, this
> field will always be sorted by the F (food) category.  While this is an
> improvement on the current situation (sorting it alphabetically), it is
> not what we really want.  As a gamer, what _I_ would want is the ability
> to have this field be sorted (in either direction) according to either
> the F, P, or T fields, or (perhaps) according to their sum.  (Note that
> these fields can now be obtained as separate entries in the dialog, so I
> can already get the behavior I want - but it is not grouped as nicely.)
>  When I sort the "currently building" field I would like to see it
> sorted not alphabetically, but first by building type (alphabetically,
> or by type; whatever) and then by turns remaining to build.  When I sort
> the "best defenders" field (very slick idea, Tuomas) I would like to be
> able to sort by either the best unit, or the sum of the best two units,
> or the sum of the best three.
> 
> With these abilities I think the city report dialog could be made both
> simpler and more powerful.
> 
> Doing all of this elegantly (note that the alternative solution is far
> from elegant, so the bar is pretty low) is not easy, but I think it is
> possible.  It is made more difficult because the different GUIs may have
> very different interfaces: even gui-gtk and gui-gtk-2.0 are quite different.
> 
> I've had some thoughts on how to do this, but I'd like to get others'
> opinions on it.  First of all: would these capabilities be a good thing?
>  Secondly: how would you go about implementing it?  (Or, better yet, can
> you provide a patch?).

Yes, these would be a good thing. Problem is, to make a good usuable and
intiutive GUI, which is not overloaded.

E.g. Raimer's sorting for F/P/T stressed the user with counting up to 8
clicks on the same button. IMO this must be addressed for people with less
than five years computer experience (or so, you know what I mean ...)

There are other things which could be displayed within the city report,
e.g. the existing buildings, the supported / stationed units, how many,
which kinds, veterans or not ...

Question is, whether these things should all be placed into one dialog,
or can they be split up in a good manner. Suggestions welcome.

If you want to make good use of the CR right now, you need a 1024*768
screen. I don't like that. If it grews even more, I like it less ;)

Some ideas: you could make use of the right mouse button for popup menues
(sorting/changing), and use the middle button for additional information
to be displayed.

Christian

-- 
Christian Knoke     * * *      http://www.enter.de/~c.knoke/
* * * * * * * * *  Ceterum censeo Microsoft esse dividendum.