Re: [Rails-devel] Fixes & sorting

[Erik V. <eri...@hc...>]

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: rai...@li... 
> [mailto:rai...@li...] On Behalf 
> Of brett lentz
> Sent: Sunday 24 June 2007 22:06
> To: Development list for Rails: an 18xx game
> Subject: Re: [Rails-devel] Fixes & sorting
> 
> On 6/24/07, Erik Vos <eri...@hc...> wrote:
> > > > > Ahhh...   how about we relabel it as "Master Undo 
> (for testing)" ?
> > > >
> > > > Hmm, isn't that a bit longish?
> > > > I was inspired by the vi commands that get a forcing 
> character when
> > > > suffixed with a !, for instance q! forces quit where q doesn't.
> > > > I agree that some explanation is needed, perhaps a tooltip?
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > A tooltip would help, but in general having two menu 
> options named the
> > > same thing is going to be confusing.
> > >
> > > I don't really see a problem with a long menu option. We're not
> > > limited for space there.
> >
> > Actually, I meant that the appearance of two options is temporary.
> > ultimately, I think there would be only one undo option 
> (labelled just
> > "Undo"),
> > and it would depend on the user's role (player or 
> Master/Moderator) what
> > its meaning would be.
> >
> s> For now I suppose we have two ways in which the program 
> can be used:
> >
> > 1. "Hotseat", which (if I'm right) means that players take 
> turns behind one
> > screen.
> > In that case, the (restricted) player undo would apply.
> >
> > 2. Moderator, in which case one person replays or moderates a game.
> > In this case the unrestricted version would apply.
> >
> > What about adding a startup option (two radio buttons?)
> > to select between these two usages? Then the "Undo!" could go.
> >
> 
> Here are some other ways we could do it:
> 
> 1) We could add a new temporary drop-down menu for testing new
> functionality, and just enable/disable it this new menu with a
> "development mode" startup option.
> 
> 2) We can move the "player undo" back onto the game status window,
> next to the Done button.  Then rename the Move menu to something like
> "Moderator", so that the Undo that's in there is more clearly a
> "Moderator Undo"
> 
> 
> 
> I like #1 because then we can add anything in there without worrying
> too much about choosing a permanent position within the UI for it.
> This also allows us to have these potentially confusing UI elements
> disabled by default when we ship out new JARs.
> 
> I like #2 because it creates a clear differentiator that may be useful
> for other features and could be a less temporary (more permanent) way
> of presenting that feature.
 
Both look good to me. In fact we could marry your two options by leaving
Move in *and* adding Moderator.

Another factor to look at is consistency between the various screens.
Currently, StartRound has a menu (incl Move), but OperatingRound hasn't,
so it needs the Undo/Redo as buttons.

> At this point, it doesn't *need* to be fixed right away. We can simply
> disable it if there are enough other things that have changed to merit
> a release.

Indeed. I don't have strong feelings about how the final UI should
incorporate all possible user actions, but I tend to prefer an
approach where normal game actions are executed via buttons, 
and exceptional actions via menu options. 
That would favour putting Undo/Redo into the menu in all screens. 

Erik.