[Kde-games-devel] Game status view

[Ian Wadham]

Re KGoldrunner, the plan is to remove the status bar.  The scores and level
details are already in the main widget.  We still need to provide some visual
indication of whether the game is paused or not paused, and whether the
current level has a hint ... then the status bar can go.

On Sun, 8 Jun 2008 06:47 am, Stefan Majewsky wrote:
> That is also the problem: the status bar is difficult to discover if you
> do not know it, and it is hard to read on big windows.
>
I think it is because the status bar is at the bottom of the window and grey 
and has a thin font, but one's attention is more often focussed on the middle
or top of the window.  It was some years before I discovered the status bar's
existence in Windows (3.x) and then a friend had to point it out ... :-)  So 
yes, imo it is really better to limit its use to supplementary information.

When I started work on KGoldrunner, in KDE 1, 2 and 3, I always wanted
to have status information in the play area, preferably in an interesting
color and a fun typeface, as is traditional in games.  But I was told that
all games that aspired to being included in KDE Games had to be "KDE
Applications" and have a consistent look and feel with other KDE apps.
Hence, no doubt the widespread use of status bar, menu bar, toolbars,
title bar and the non-use of full-screen.

To be fair, much of our KDE Games "market" is for small games that do
not take long to play and will fit easily on a conventional desktop.  Perhaps
some of our audience likes to have something that is not too conspicuous
and can quickly be closed if the boss happens to wander by ... ;-)

Also to be fair, earlier KDE's (up to KDE 3) had a much more elaborate
status bar (see attached example).  It had sub-divisions and you could
set a larger font, in bold face.  It made quite a good display-board for
game status.  But all that disappeared with KDE 4, and the status fields
became normal desktop font, which you now see in KGoldrunner.  I
believe you can still achieve effects in the status bar by using QStyle
(if you do not mind fractured syntax) or by attaching widgets.

For a while I fought a losing battle against the blandifying of the status
bar in KDE 4.  There were even self-appointed KDE 4 "style police" who
came and modified the relevant code.  One of them made a change that
deleted 2-3 lines and added a line to include himself in the KGoldrunner
copyright lines!  I was *not* amused ... :-/

So now I think we can have a more relaxed attitude to that bar, Ian W.

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