[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#7019) power to the 'messages' report window!

["Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa" <vasc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=7019 >

On Mon, 1 Dec 2003, Rodolfo Borges wrote:

>
> <URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=7019 >
>
>
> As I felt a bit less comfortable in the new gtk2 client of 1.14.1-beta1
> (was using the regular gtk client of 1.14), I was thinking on what could
> be better in the UI (ex. the 'buy' button could display the cost to buy,
> in the production pane of the city dialog.), when came to me an idea:
>
> Add some action buttons aside each line of the 'Messages' report dialog,
> associated with reasonable responses to each event.  The first (default)
> button should do the same as double-clicking on a line does now.
> (Double-clicking should still work, just the behaviour would be shown).
>
> For example, on a message about a city having completed a production,
> and started another, there could be a button to change or buy the
> production.
>
>
> Another idea I had some time ago: an option to automaticalyy buy
> after some condition was met.  Something like this:
>
> <pre>
> "-------------------------------------"
> "  BUY                    cost = 240  "
> "                                     "
> "  /------+   /------+   /--------+   "
> "  | NOW  |   |  NO  |   | AUTO.. |   "
> "  +------/   +------/   +--------/   "
> "                                     "
> "-------------------------------------"
> </pre>
>
>
> The 'Auto...' button calls:
>
>
> <pre>
> "---------------------------------------------"
> "  AUTO-BUY                      cost = 240   "
> "                                             "
> "  (X) after [ 40]% complete                  "
> "  ( ) after [ 2] turns in production         "
> "  (X) cost <= [  50] gold                    "
> "  ( ) cost <= [ 75]% of current treasure     "
> "  (X) leave [ 100] gold or more after buing  "
> "  (X) only if production was manually set    "
> "                                             "
> "                                  (X) auto   "
> "                                             "
> "                  /--------+    /--------+   "
> "                  | CANCEL |    |   OK   |   "
> "                  +--------/    +--------/   "
> "                                             "
> "---------------------------------------------"
> </pre>
>
> The 'auto' check box (that makes the city always buy on the condition),
> should also be present in the 'Settings' pane of the city dialog, along
> with a shortcut to call the Auto-buy dialog.
>
> If the 'Auto-buy' dialog is called by the 'Buy' dialog, the
> On the behaviour of the 'Ok' button of the Auto-buy dialog: if called
> by the 'Buy' dialog,
>
>
> 'nuff for now.
> Best regards,
>       barrett@xxxxxxxxxx
>
>
>
> PS: one more complain (:  the new production dialog has some flaws..
> I miss the 'prepend' button a lot! and I don't like the separate place
> for the current production, it should be just the top of the worklist.
> To change the production, keeping the current one as the first next in
> the worklist (a common practice) is a pain now. (Ok, not a pain, but
> requires many extra steps).
>
> Also, draging from the list on the right (the targets) is ok, but I can't
> drop them on the worklist!  Visual feedback of the drop place would be
> nice too..

If you know how to make a GtkTreeView both a drop target and reorderable,
please be welcome to say so. The GTK+ Drag and Drop documentation is poor,
to be nice.

> The production listbox on the "Overview" pane is missing too.
> It's handy when you just what to change current producion quickly,
> and don't want to mess with the worklist.

It takes the same number of clicks... I have said this several times now.
It opened a separate dialog remember? It never had a list in there.

> There is enough room for it: the "Supported units" and "Present units"
> lists don't need to be that wide. The same for the "Production" bar and
> the "Improvements" list.

The production bar is too wide? Try saying Copernicus' Observatory,
Isaac Newton's College or Sun Tzu's War Academy plus the numeric data.

I wonder how long those names get in German. :-)

> Well, in general, it's better to have more power on each screen of the
> UI, and not a myriad of dialogs/panes. -> to shorten the path to the
> action the user wants.. (to buy from the "Overview" pane: Alt-d-b-y-c).
> For ex, to edit a worklist I have to switch many times (almost once for
> each item: "what's next? mag plant? <switches to overview..>  nah..
> only 18 shields, too low <switches back to worklist..>"...)

It was the exact same thing previously if you were editing the worklist.
The thing is, you probably didn't use the worklist, but the popup change
current production dialog. Well, we cannot fit everything into the same
dialog, or else only people with 21" monitors would be able to see it. :-)

> Freeciv does it very well (MUUUUCH bettern than Civ2 in this aspect),
> one good example is the mighty "Cities" report (F1),
> so watch out for not taking a step backwards..

Yeah, I haven't seen any strategy game which had a global report that
configurable, with so actions possible yet.

Comments noted.

---
Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa @ Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisboa