[crossfire] Gridarta concerns [was: IRC traffic for Sunday Oct 22]

[Alex Schultz]

(crossposting to the gridarta mailing list)

Christian Hujer wrote:
> On Tuesday 24 October 2006 15:39 Alex Schultz wrote:
>   
> <snip>
>>     -"but I think more importantly, it should be possible to create a
>> crappy 'my first map' in 10 minutes or less" - Cavehippo
>>     
> At least for daimonin that's possible, and I'd say so it is for crossfire. If 
> you think it's not, please let me know what we can improve.
>   
I haven't looked at gridarta4daimonin yet, however at least in
gridarta4crossfire, there are few interface issue which I feel affect
this. The current system of, left click to select, right click to insert
and middle to delete, is IMHO not the greatest. It *is* a very fast
interface to use, however I personally find it too error prone and also
could be easier for new users. I personally would advocate an interface
more like this:
    -Have a 'tool palette', and allow right, middle and left mouse
buttons to have separate palette modes assigned to each at once.
    -By default, have left click as select and middle click as insert,
and right as a new context menu.
    -Make an easy thing for resetting the tool selections to those
defaults, possibly a lock option.
    -The context menu contains actions that can be done to the whole
stack (i.e. cut, copy, paste, delete, select, insert) and also having
submenus for each object inside it, for doing similar actions (i.e. cut,
copy, delete, select) to that object alone.
    -Key bindings with the following defaults:
          -Delete key deletes objects (something I wish for regardless
of if this interface is done or not)
          -Space bar inserts the selected object on the selected tile
          -Arrow keys move selection

This system could be configured to be the same as the existing system,
or more like what I suggest as a default. IMHO it would make gridarta
much nicer to use to have such a context menu and to allow mouse button
configuration and keyboard bindings. I'm not sure how many would agree
with me on that, but that's my view on what would be a nicer interface.

> <snip>
> * I'm not communicating ideas good enough. Gotta publish more parts of my todo 
> list, also keep information that's already in Daimonin's Mantis in sync with 
> such todo lists.
>   
Speaking of Daimonin's Mantis, is it still in use for gridarta? I was
under the impression that sf's tracker was considered the primary
location for new gridarta bugs/etc. I'm not a gridarta developer
(currently), but I do look at the sf tracker sometimes, and IMHO having
both in use at once is a pain due to looking at two different places.
Also, I personally wouldn't exactly be in favor of moving from mixed
usage to Daimonin's Mantis either for the long term, because when
viewing it's mixed around all these Daimonin bugs in many views. That's
just my opinion though :)


Alex Schultz