[Freeciv-Dev] (PR#11291) Available Items List should be sortable by columns

["craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=11291 >

Available Items List should be sortable by columns

In the city window on the worklist tab, the available items can grow
large and I'd like to easily sort on the column tabs. This will easily
allow me to answer questions like "what's the highest attacking unit I
can build" (by sorting on the info tab), "what is the unit or
improvement that can be built the soonest" (by sorting on the turns
tab", "what is the cheapest unit I can purchase" (by sorting on the
cost tab", etc. 

The way the items are currently organized is by groups: improvements
are displayed first (coinage is included in this group), then units,
then wonders. Another problem is scanning to see if a city can build a
unit of a specific type, such as a Destroyer. Without leaving the
worklist tab, if I want to know this, I look for the group that
contains the units, then begin looking for Destroyer. This can lead to
hunting when the worklist grows long. However, if I could sort
the type column alphabetically all I would have to do is look
for "Destroyer" in the list of items that begin with D -- a much
simpler search.  

Should I be sorting on a column that has two matching elements (for
instance that the cost of two units are the same), they should be
ordered alphabetically by name. That is, the sort order should always
be: current column, then alphabetically by type. 

The only remaining issue is how to get the default sorting back., I
suggest adding a small column that indicates which category the item
belongs to. The column header would be "category", and the possible
categories are: unit, improvement, and wonder. These could be
represented by a single letter to save space: u, i, and w. Clicking on
the category column would sort it into improvements, units, and
wonders -- the current default. 




Available Items List should be sortable by columns

In the city window on the worklist tab, the available items can grow
large and I'd like to easily sort on the column tabs. This will easily
allow me to answer questions like "what's the highest attacking unit I
can build" (by sorting on the info tab), "what is the unit or
improvement that can be built the soonest" (by sorting on the turns
tab", "what is the cheapest unit I can purchase" (by sorting on the
cost tab", etc. 

The way the items are currently organized is by groups: improvements
are displayed first (coinage is included in this group), then units,
then wonders. Another problem is scanning to see if a city can build a
unit of a specific type, such as a Destroyer. Without leaving the
worklist tab, if I want to know this, I look for the group that
contains the units, then begin looking for Destroyer. This can lead to
hunting when the worklist grows long. However, if I could sort
the type column alphabetically all I would have to do is look
for "Destroyer" in the list of items that begin with D -- a much
simpler search.  

Should I be sorting on a column that has two matching elements (for
instance that the cost of two units are the same), they should be
ordered alphabetically by name. That is, the sort order should always
be: current column, then alphabetically by type. 

The only remaining issue is how to get the default sorting back., I
suggest adding a small column that indicates which category the item
belongs to. The column header would be "category", and the possible
categories are: unit, improvement, and wonder. These could be
represented by a single letter to save space: u, i, and w. Clicking on
the category column would sort it into improvements, units, and
wonders -- the current default.