[Rails-devel] rails' user properties

[Jim B. <ji...@ko...>]

I noticed that there's been substantial effort to add a configuration/properties system to Rails, and also look forward to seeing this in the next update.

(I think the most critical update is the fix of the diesel-upgrade/tradein bug, fwiw-  we always need to downgrade to 1.2.2 when the diesels come out, which disables the most useful/difficult phase of 1.3's automated route-calculation.)

Along the lines of user preferences and properties, here's some more comments re: differences from a pbem user to a hotseat/moderator user--

- I load pbem Rails games, from my dropbox, all day.  The usage pattern is:  launch rails, load game file (the last two can be munged), make move, save game file, exit rails.

==>  Note that loading/exiting rails for each game is awkward (and unusual)- I'd rather leave it running all day- loading games as they're updated, saving & moving on to the next game, etc.

- Also, once I load a game within Rails, I repeat my next sequence of operations too:  I open most of the separate Rails game windows (map, stock-chart, report window), and, resize and position these windows for my current display.

==>  Note that having to reconfigure my desktop for each game is also awkward- I wish Rails maintained a record of my last window layout for each title/game- and. defaulted to that, when I [re-]load that title/game.  

For extra credit, it should keep separate copies for different display sizes- during the day, we may switch computers, or, we may simply switch a laptops from the builtin display, to a larger external display.  (These things directly affect the way we config our windows, for each particular title.)  

There's nothing magic about any of this- but the awkward thing is, we have to repeat these exact little steps, /all day long/, in many standalone Rails sessions.  It gets tedious to do these same tweaks every time we reload a game- it would be great if Rails just remembered our last window placements for each title (or, game), and little desktop stuff like that.

best,
 - jim