[Flightgear-devel] Launcher add-on handling changes

[James T. <zak...@ma...>]

Hi,

Based on recent discussion and confusion, I just pushed some changes to the launcher. I would appreciate testing and feedback on the exact wording, I am trying to avoid confusing users and encouraging novice users to change things they should not, while still giving advanced users the flexibility they need.

- the ‘add-ons’ dialog is now a fourth page (tab), which solves some odd interaction problems and hopefully makes the ‘where is this setting’ more coherent

- the ‘restore settings’ button on the settings page now explains what it does more clearly, and warns that it will disturb the download and data settings. I *could* tweak the code to preserve the values of those settings but wipe all others, but that seems very baroque, so I prefer to simply warn users what will happen.

- adjusting the data path (which is now described as ’fg-data’) does not affect any other setting

- there is more descriptive text in the add-ons page about what the data and download directories are for, and the consequences of changing them.

- Launcher settings are stored in .ini format in $FG_HOME/flightgear.org/FlightGear.ini

The one missing piece is if you change the download dir, and hence lose the default / official aircraft hanger, there is is no UI to explain what you only have the C172 and UFO. I intend to add this to the aircraft list as a custom item (which can be dismissed), stating something like:

[No aircraft hangars or folders are defined, so only the default aircraft are available. Use the add-ons page to add hangars or select
 aircraft folders, or <click here> to hide this message]

Again, feedback on *all* of this wording is welcome, since what makes sense to me may not make sense to everyone. Please note I will probably reject /any/ wording or language which contains the following

 ‘path’  (generally I’m using ‘location’)
 ‘environment variable’  (avoiding mentioning these at all!)
 ‘executable’  (use ‘application’ or ‘program’ or ‘FlightGear’)
 ‘directory’ (use ‘folder’)


All feedback and testing is much appreciated. 

Kind regards,
James