[Kde-games-devel] KGameDifficulty

[Johann Ollivier Lapeyre]

2007/7/24, Mauricio Piacentini <mauricio at tabuleiro.com>:
>
> Nicolas, regarding KGameDifficulty: is it possible to make the
> appearance of the comboBox in the statusBar optional, maybe controlled
> by a flag in the constructor?


We hardly trying to harmonize the way the severals games are looking, and
their usability. And this is hard because everyone could have his "point of
view". With the current KGameDifficulty, every games will have this setting
at the same place, and will not disturb the user. So, is it a really good
idea to allow every games to do whatever it want? Honestly, i don't think,
and in the futur, when we'll improve more our usability, i prefer every apps
gain the improvement at the same time.

About the current location (status), i tested it with 3 childrens, and they
*very* easily found the way to change the level. Before (on kde3.5 one),
they didn't know this could be set.


if they prefer to gather all user input in the toolbar and use the
> statusBar just for output.


Status bar is *not* for output. Just because user don't read it, especially
just text.
Usually, users read the status bar only when he want, not when the app want.
For example, some games are finished when a "you win" or "you lost" is
written in the status bar. How it works with user? On some users, it is
working, and with other, the user think the app is frozen because it don't
read it... A better way to make the output is to make  them "in game", like
kblackbox for example.

Status bar purpose is to cummunicate "state". Some example:
- difficulty
- running or paused
- Connected or unconnected (for network game...)
- progress bar (navigator)

This infos are not vitals, but when the user need them, it's here.

With this change the author could easily
> choose to put the window in the statusBar or in the toolbar, depending
> on the game, and maybe adjust the layout if needed.


And this way, the common feature "view or set difficulty" will be not the
same, nor at the same place, between the game? please don't... Imagine a
world where the "open file" icon should be not at the same place
everywhere...

In fact, we tested first in the toolbar, and it doesn't work well (both
usability and look). It's better here for now. Maybe in the futur, it could
be possible on canvas, and maybe it will better (but with a risk: games
canvas have several layout, maybe not a good idea to harmonize something
here...)
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