Re: gnome-games 2.9.2

[Callum McKenzie <callum physics otago ac nz>]

On Mon, 2004-11-29 at 10:32 +0100, Paolo Borelli wrote:
> Il giorno lun, 29-11-2004 alle 21:58 +1300, Callum McKenzie ha scritto:
> > Aisleriot:
> >  - Revised end-of-game dialog. The quit option is gone, an undo
> >    option has been added if there are no more moves (callum).
> 
> What is the rationale for this change?
First, not that this is an experimental change designed to provoke
argument. That part seems to have worked :).

The basic rationale behind adding the undo option for failed games was
to avoid the sudden end to the game. It is not always obvious that the
game is about to end (e.g. in clock it is impossible to tell) and I have
found that the sudden appearance of a dialog telling you "the game is
over and that is final" to be rude and annoying. So that is why the undo
button has been added, to "soften" the dialog.

The quit button does make sense as an option (I use it a lot), but it
isn't essential so I removed it to make the dialog less cluttered. I am
not sure it is the right move, but I would like to try it for a while
before making a final decision.

> Of course the real solution would be to get rid of the dialog and just
> draw "game over" or "you won" over the cards, so that the new game,
> undo, and quit are available from the menu/toolbar. However I don't know
> if this is possible with the current code.
This is what we do with gnometris but it is technically difficult due to
limitations in the Pango API (especially when supporting resizing
windows). It is also unusual UI for GNOME (but not for games in
general). 

Also note that the model for the program doesn't have a "game over"
state anymore. It does have the concept of "no more legal moves", but a
game is only counted as a loss if you give up on it, either by starting
a new game or by quitting the program. Ideally this last option should
save the game for later rather than killing the game.

 - Callum