Is our UI good or bad?

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Re: Is our UI good or bad?

Postby IBBoard at 07 Sep 2011, 18:31

If you've got Hg questions then just drop me an email :) Until you get to the point of making edits and merging them then it isn't really any more complex that Subversion - it just seems it at first because it is different :) The main changes are that you're working with hashes instead of revision numbers (because they're global - you do get local revision numbers, though) and that you have the full history locally, so swapping to an older version (an "update") doesn't need to get anything from the server.

As for the Unit Type Tree - it should show automatically when you create an army, in the same way that the Army Tree does. I'll check it again and make sure it works when run from the binary and not just debug mode.

[edit] In case you're having trouble getting the right head to build, I've made a stand-alone build (just a copy of my Debug mode build). It's in one of our temporary-and-not-an-official-release folders [url=warfoundry.co.uk/files/WarFoundry-WinForms-v0_2dev-AltUnitUI.zip]here[/url].
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Re: Is our UI good or bad?

Postby snowblizz at 07 Sep 2011, 20:03

Well I can't even find any code for any Unity Type Tree! I've cloned the IBDev.WinformsGUI but there does not seem to be any .cs for anything I could see as a unittype form in there. So I'm pretty darned confused.

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Re: Is our UI good or bad?

Postby IBBoard at 07 Sep 2011, 20:08

Looks like we overlapped - I created a download and just posted a link in the last thread :)

As for it not having a file - you're probably on the wrong head/branch. It is a bit messy, but I've currently got two streams of development in the one repository (basically the same as creating a branch in Subversion, except that it never need be seen by anyone else if I don't want it to). The latest one (which a clone will default to) doesn't have the new UI in.

The new UI is in the branch that currently has revision 694f23814ec2 at its head. You should be able to do an "Update" in TortoiseHg and give it that revision hash and it'll set you to the correct version of the code (the same as doing "svn update -r #" does in Subversion - only without the requirement for talking to the server).
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Re: Is our UI good or bad?

Postby snowblizz at 07 Sep 2011, 21:21

Ooooh... now I think I get it, sorta. Yeah I've been doing everything pretty much through the "Hg Workbench" interface. It worked now that I ran the update from the context menu and to the specified hash #. The Workbench doesn't have all options, or I don't know how to use/access them.
Still thinking in Suberversion style, especially the idea of "update and the latest stuff is what I want". And the graphical one at that, not the more powerful console way. If it's not on a menu I have no clue.

Here's a little screen from a *real* datafile.
Image

The unit tree becomes a bit long (it's bigger than my 1280x1024px screen!), especially now though with all the superfluous units there. We need contained units, ASAP I've noticed. Several armies are currently very complicated with stupid several-troops-grouped-in-one-unit concepts.

But in principle I can see it being useful.

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Re: Is our UI good or bad?

Postby IBBoard at 08 Sep 2011, 19:15

Glad you got the Mercurial stuff sorted :) Subversion's "update and I have what I want" only works until the point where you branch, though, at which point you need a completely separate checkout of mostly the same code but from a different URL.

So something like that, but perhaps docked (where you have it, but permanently locked there)? It is collapsible, though, so hopefully size won't be a problem. I'll see what Clutch has to say as well, since he was the first one to suggest it.

Once we have that panel, I'm not sure if it is best to drop the dialogs and the buttons or not. It is duplication (in a way - the dialogs will include the warnings that the tree currently doesn't), but without them then we have a somewhat empty toolbar!
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Re: Is our UI good or bad?

Postby snowblizz at 08 Sep 2011, 20:28

Don't you dare touch my buttons! That would really press my button.

Idiomatic expressions FTW!

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Re: Is our UI good or bad?

Postby IBBoard at 09 Sep 2011, 12:15

So the preference is for "Add [insert category]" buttons and the unit type tree? Not a problem, just as long as we don't end up cluttering the UI :)
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Re: Is our UI good or bad?

Postby snowblizz at 09 Sep 2011, 14:44

Yeah, at least for me. I know it won't seem that way right now but when we get those purty icons instead of the plusses... ooh that's gonna be nifty!

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Re: Is our UI good or bad?

Postby IBBoard at 09 Sep 2011, 18:29

Icons for the categories would be good. I was intending to only do them for the categories in the army tree, but putting them on the buttons would work well for each game system/race :)
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