[Kde-games-devel] Another sokoban program

[Ralf Schmelter]

Hello!

Some users of my Sokoban program EasySok
(http://easysok.sourceforge.net) suggested to include EasySok
into the kdegames package (and maybe replacing KSokoban). I'm
not really sure if this is a good idead, so I want to ask you
for your opinion (especially considering the last discussion
about splitting up the kdegames package).

The advantages and disadvantages as I see them are:

Anvantages:
- EasySok is more advanced compared to KSokoban, while beeing
  as least as easy to use (apart maybe from the more complex
  menu structure). There are advanced features for
  the Sokoban fanatic (editor, duplicate level finder, editor,
  highscore server, ...) and features which the casual user
  will appreciarte also (solver, storing of all solutions and
  the last attempt, drag and drop, themes).
- EasySok is more compliant to the KDE standards (you can
  change the toolbar and the accelerators).

Disadvantages:
- KSokoban is older and smaller, so that it will contain less
  errors than EasySok.
- KSokoban is already translated in many different languages,
  while EasySok is only partially translated to German (and
  a translation will need a lot more of effort due to the
  number of messages and the size of the handbook).
- Adding EasySok to kdegames will increase the size of the
  tar'ed and bzip'ed kdegames package by about 200kB to 400kB
  (depending on the number of themes).
- EasySok may need more main memory (for storing the solutions).
  This can be as much as 4 MB.
- It's not tested on as many systems as KSokoban (especially on
  low end machines).
- Inclusion of EasySok doesn't adds a new game to the kdegames
  package, but only adds a better(?) version of an existing game.

While some of the disadvantages may vanish if EasySok is included
into kdegames, the increase in the size of the kdegames package
and the main memory usage will remain. On the other hand Sokoban
has (like chess) some die-hard fans, for which KSokoban is simply
not advanced enough (in fact I started coding EasySok because
of some missing features in KSokoban).

So, what do you think?

Ralf Schmelter

-- 
Ralf Schmelter
Physikalische Chemie 2a
Uni Dortmund
44221 Dortmund

Tel.: +49 231 / 755 3942
Fax: +49 231 / 755 3937
e-mail: ralfs@heineken.chemie.uni-dortmund.de