[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Connect Dialog Patch

[Christian Knoke <chrisk@xxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Jul 06, 2003 at 04:38:41PM -0400, Daniel L Speyer wrote:
> Just when you thought I'd dropped off the face of the Earth....
> 
> Here is the lastest version of the game starting patch!  The connection
> dialog has moved into the main frame (which, incidentally, eliminates
> map-window embarisements), the terminal corruption is gone, and just about
> every server function now has a graphical interface.

Good. I find this patch very important.

Better feed the next version into RT.

> It is gtk1 only, and probably interacts badly with the other guis.
> 
> So check it out.  Comments, bug reports, etc. are ap[preciated as always.

Frankly, I don't like the GUI very much. I understand that you cannot make a
complete GUI in one patch. So let's just make it useable, and fine tune
later.

Basically works ok, no hanging civservers ;-)

Technical issues
----------------

Several menue items should not be accessible. Fx:
start civclient, menue->kingdom->find city->cancel, segfault

The 'type' field allows too few characters (i18n).

When I login with a second client, I cannot /take a player, even if my
username is a playername in the game.

The server dies on disconnect, even if other players are logged in.
Disconnect and "End game" are the same.

The player and client lists are sometimes not updated (deleted), when the
server quits.

Options are transferred to server, when set button is pressed, even if they
didn't change.

civclient -t trident -P none -a
gives segfault.

GUI issues
----------

'disconnect' and 'End game' do the same - can disconnect go to choose player
window?

There needs to be a way to translate the options. While it may be acceptable
to use the server option names (instead of more descriptive names) for them
in the english version, this is certainly not acceptable for L10n.

connect is not the default action

Top left globe grafics vanishes and never reappears.

Not possible to set ongoing options before the game starts (segfault)


GUI suggestions
---------------

Well this can be done in a future patch IMO; I note this for the records,
but feel free to take one of these:

Enable/Disable set and reset buttons accordingly, when options are changed.
It is not obvious, that you have to use "set", to apply the modified
options to the game.

There should be an interface to use the server mechanism of
saveturn/savename to save games.

Use a fixed directory for savegames, fx ~/freecivgames

First rule for GUIs is "don't mode me", well you mode me all the time.
Why not put the commands into the game menue? Go back to dialogs. Main gfx
as usual.

Better feedback, on what/if server is running (more verbose/gfx)

Sort the options into groups and present them in a tabbed dialog. Name the
groups, so the user gets a feeling what they are for.

Tooltips for options instead of button to open a window.

TIA,

Christian

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