[Rails-devel] Changes & UI ideas

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

I have committed a bunch of changes, mainly to bring the
OR Model/View interface in line with the recent changes to 
other types of round. I've also cleaned up some old code.

UI changes are minimal, but I have been pondering a few more.

I'm no longer very happy with the varying use of the OR window buttons.
In particular I think that the payout decision can better be done 
in a popup than by the standard buttonsm which are renamed for that purpose.

Perhaps the revenue entry should as well be put into a popup.

I fact I'm inclining to an approach previously proposed by Brett,
to have a fixed set of buttons as in the 1830 PC game, which 
are enabled/disabled as appropriate. I'm not sure if buttons should
also be added to initiate tile and token laying, as that would imply 
an extra mouse click.

Having a fixed set of buttons will also give a quieter look -
it's now a bit chaotic with buttons appearing and disappearing all the time.
Special actions (like the M&H/NYC swap) could be put under a "Special"
button.
Undo/Redo would be moved to a menu bar, as in the other windows.
Comments?


Talking about popups, I am also considering to replace some popup
choice lists by a set of radio buttons, at least in those cases where
a choice must be made between equivalent options, such as in selecting
a company start price. The current choice list initially shows 
the top price ($100) only, and the list must be scrolled to see the other
values. 
I think it would be better to show all prices on equal footing.

Other cases are different. For instance, train buying has a preferred choice

(the next train from the Bank) and I think it's OK to show just that one on
top.

As JOptionPane does not have a radio button version, I have created 
a simple generic dialog (RadioButtonDialog) that takes an arbitrary number 
of options (a String array). These options are shown as a list of radio
buttons, 
with OK and Cancel buttons.
As an experiment, I have replaced the par price choice list, 
that is shown when starting a company, by a set of radio buttons. 
I have /not/ replaced the price list that pops up when buying 
the B&O private, so you can still compare the two possibilities. 
Let me know what you think about it.


>From here I will continue to complete Undo/Redo to the
point that perhaps Save/Load can be implemented.
By then I think we will have a firm enough basis to resume adding
more functionality.

Erik Vos