Re: [Bug-gnubg] USE_OLD_LAYOUT flag replaced with menu option

[Øystein Johansen]

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Thanks for a wonderful mail Ned!

Ned Cross wrote:

| I've tested the unified build quite a bit and it's really a great
| improvement!  Here's a few comments/suggestions/wish list items (build CL
| 1.1525 on Win2000):
|
| 1) Error messages seem to be greatly reduced, If not gone entirely
now.  The
| only issue I've seen with 2d/3d boards is that 3 of the predefined
styles do
| not have a 3D board: espana, 30's board, easygoing.

Making 3D similar designs could be a great job for a great person like
you. ;-)

|  Also Zox/vegas 3d board
| and Nature 3d board gives error: failed to load texture hinge2.bmp

You can download the missing file from savannah:
http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/*checkout*/gnubg/gnubg/textures/hinge2.bmp?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/plain

(Sorry the long link.)

| 2) If I create a new design (color scheme) in 2D, then switch to 3D,
the new
| board scheme is lost and replaced by the default 3d scheme.  Is it
possible
| to add a default set of textures, light, & whatever to the newly defined
| color design in 3d? Or do I have to always create separate designs from
| scratch in 3D and 2D?

The rendering engines for 2d and 3d boards are separated from each
other, the designs are therefore also separated. Of course, letting the
3d rendering code copy some values from the 2d code can be done, but I
think it's a lot of work, and possibly not worth the effort.

| 3) Minor preference issue:  My default setup is panels not docked, 2d
board,
| game record and analysis windows open, message window not open, toolbar
| icons only, not full-screen.  It took me 3 iterations of resetting
| everything to my default preferences and saving settings to my autorc
file,
| but now it all works reliably. When GNUBG opens, the game record,
| annotation, and main windows open. The order of these items on the windows
| task bar has become reversed (game record first, then annotation, and main
| window last.  It was more intuitive before, with the main window being the
| first GNUbg item on the taskbar. Can this be restored?

I think this is depending of the order the program creates the windows.
Jon? Do you know?

| 4) Menus no longer activate from the game record window.  In the old 2d
| build, one could highlight a move in the game record window and the
program
| would respond to a menu command (ie - keyboard shortcut like "play
computer
| turn" or "analyse move", or "import new match").  Now the program will not
| respond to those inputs with the game-record window in focus, but only
with
| the Main window in focus.  This requires the user to select the
interesting
| position in one window, then switch windows to execute the menu
command. Is
| it possible to restore the ability to accept menu commands from the Game
| Record window?

I see the problem! I can't think of any simple solution to this. Anyone?

| 5) Navigation Problem: Game Record window.  After setting up a position in
| the edit screen, it's now very difficult, if not impossible, to get
back to
| the place where the position is shown with the dice on the board.
| Navigating with the arrows seems to skip either to the position before the
| edit, or to the position after the move. Try it and if it's not clear what
| I'm talking about I'll try to explain in more detail.

I can navigate to the position quite easy. I click on the game record at
the moverecord I want, and then I click on the next button (the green
right arrow). Doesn't this take you to the right place, or do I
misunderstand something?

| 6) Minor preference: Windows task bar buttons.  Since when panels are not
| docked, there are multiple GNUBG windows open, and multiple windows
taskbar
| button for the GNUBG program.  All the buttons have the same GNUBG
icon, and
| say "GNU Backgammon" - "GNU Backgammon - Annotation", GNU Backgammon -
| Rollout" etc.  The minor usability issue is that since all buttons
have the
| same Icon and same first 14 letters of text, there is no way to
distinguish
| which button leads to what window.  Would it be possible to re-order the
| text of the heading to something like "Board - GNU Backgammon":
| "Annotation - GNU Backgammon"; "Game Record - GNU Backgammon"; "Rollout -
| GNU Backgammon"; "Message - GNU Backgammon", etc.  That way when
looking at
| a taskbar full of GNU buttons, it would be possible to tell at a
glance (by
| the first letters) which button would pull up what window.

What is it just said "Annotation", "Message" and so on...? Should be
easy to fix.

| 7) 3D board inconsistency: when playing with the 3D board, the board
shifts,
| and tilts when the doubling cube goes to the top-players side.  Presumably
| this is because the height of the cube extends beyond the border of the
| board in that situation, so the whole board has to "shrink" to still
fit in
| it's defined space.  It's a bit unnerving so perhaps it might be
possible to
| define the board boundary to include the space required by the cube in the
| top position. The problem exists even if the board is not filling the
entire
| vertical space of the window.

Jon's field.....

| 8) Minor feature request: Board appearance.  A friend of mine has a
| beautiful Taki wooden board with nice color scheme.  In addition to
| beautiful colors, the Taki boards have a point shape that makes them
look a
| bit like feathers.  They look like standard triangular points, but the
| bottoms, instead of being flat at the edge of the board, are rounded in a
| semicircle with the arc just touching the edge of the board.  Would it be
| possible to create an option under "Appearance/Board" of "flat points" or
| "rounded points" to enable creation of Taki style board designs?

It can be done, and I think I know how this can be done in the 2D code.
How to make this in 3D board -- I have no idea. Jon?

| 9) Minor feature request: toolbar Icon.  There used to be a toolbar button
| for "Play computer turn".  Could this be restored?

Yes!

BTW: Can you design us a nice icon image for this button? At least
suggest what the image should be?

Do you want a particular placement in the bar for this icon?

| 10) HTML export:  I don't know if it's me and my installation or something
| else but I can't get my html export to show board diagrams anymore.  I saw
| the post about 344 vs 346 images and I have the same error message which
| crashes GNUBG.  I can't view any positions I'd previously exported in
html,
| and new ones don't work either. My settings/export/URL to pictures is
| C:\backgammon\gnubg\Images, and I have a directory at that location
with the
| .png files, so I'm not sure what to do from here.

Anyone?

| 11) File/New:  Is it possible to have the ability to set a direct keyboard
| shortcut for "start new game"? right now ctrl-n only gets the "New" dialog
| box with no way to go further except with the mouse.  Also the
selection for
| new position is "active" (not greyed out) but does not do anything yet, as
| far as I can tell.

We could of course add a new menu item for "New game", so you could add
whichever shortcut you want. Really simple.

Thanks for your opinions!
- -Øystein

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