[Kde-games-devel] Statusbar messages in KPatience

[Parker Coates]

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 11:15 AM, Frederik Schwarzer wrote:
> Hi,

I think the situation is a bit more complicated than you realise.
Personally , I think this is KPat's coolest feature.

> in KPatience there are status bar messages to tell the user that
> - This game can still be won! Good luck to you.
This means the solver has found a solution.

> - Nope, this game cannot be won anymore.
This means that the solver has determined that there are no winning
solutions possible from the current game state.

> - Timeout while playing - unknown if it can be won
Sometimes the solver is unable to decide either way. It wasn't able to
establish or rule out winability.

> - This game is lost.
This indicates that there are simply no moves left to do.

> Isn't that a bit too much?
> Besides that the difference between the 2nd and the 4th message is no
> difference at all from the user perspective the 1st message draws the
> player's attention after every move made (I only asked three people,
> but I think it distracts more). The 3rd message however has not been
> understood by these three people. They actually thought they waited
> too long to make their next move.

I agree that the messages could be a bit clearer. How about:
- Solver: Calculating...
- Solver: This game is winnable.
- Solver: No winning solution exists.
- Solver: Unable to determine if game is winnable.
- The game is lost. No moves remain.

I think adding "Solver:" to the first four messages adds a bit of
context to help the user understand, although maybe some other prefix
would be clearer. "Background solver:"? "Autosolver:"?

> So I think it might be cleaner to drop all these messages and only
> have one (maybe in style of the "You have lost" message in kmines)
> for the situation where the game is not solvable anymore.

A large number of games are unsolvable right from the start. Imagine
how distressing it would be to start a new game and be told "You have
lost." before you've even moved a card! ;)

Parker