From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 17400 invoked by alias); 20 Jul 2004 15:40:00 -0000 Mailing-List: contact xconq7-help@sources.redhat.com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: xconq7-owner@sources.redhat.com Received: (qmail 17296 invoked from network); 20 Jul 2004 15:39:58 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mail1.panix.com) (166.84.1.72) by sourceware.org with SMTP; 20 Jul 2004 15:39:58 -0000 Received: from panix5.panix.com (panix5.panix.com [166.84.1.5]) by mail1.panix.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 87E3A48781; Tue, 20 Jul 2004 11:39:57 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from kingdon@localhost) by panix5.panix.com (8.11.6p2-a/8.8.8/PanixN1.1) id i6KFdv219401; Tue, 20 Jul 2004 11:39:57 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 19:19:00 -0000 Message-Id: <200407201539.i6KFdv219401@panix5.panix.com> From: Jim Kingdon To: hronne@comhem.se Cc: xconq7@sources.redhat.com In-reply-to: (message from Hans Ronne on Tue, 20 Jul 2004 10:02:27 +0200) Subject: Re: Weird fuel behavior References: <40FAF653.9090602@phy.cmich.edu> (message from Eric McDonald on Sun, 18 Jul 2004 16:14:43 -0600) <40FAF653.9090602@phy.cmich.edu> X-SW-Source: 2004/txt/msg00783.txt.bz2 > If you ctrl-click on a unit, it brings up a small closeup (floating window) > where you can examine its plans etc. Basically the same information as in > the unit info pane. So you could open these for a few units and keep them open and they'd get updated as the game proceeds? If so, that sounds like the key advantage - watching them change, rather than just getting a static view of a unit. The target audience for this feature is people who don't understand how game events are affecting their units. (This includes game designers, kernel debuggers, etc, not just newbie players). That's why I proposed something which was more explicitly about change and action than about unit state. But having a unit state window that you can see change might not be such a bad way of getting at change (xconq could even boldface numbers which are changed recently or something). > The only thing that has held me off so far is the poor support for > floating windows in tcltk. It took a lot of work to get the research > popup window to behave the way it does, and it is still inferior to a > real floating window. Well, I understand the reluctance. I think maybe the research window has been improved since the last time I played a game which has research, but I remember quirks (like not bringing it to the front when desired or something, I don't really remember fully and some of them might be related to how research interacts with turns and movement, not just the floating-ness of the window as such). In SDL, I assume we'd get to write our own window code (or use one of the many libraries out there which are designed to go on top of SDL). I don't know whether that is better or worse than having (possibly buggy or quirky) floating windows provided for us.