Re: Sudoku Savant [was Re: Searching for a Sudoku client to put into GNOME-games]

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

Let this post and this thread server as a very small example of all the
little detail and endless nitpicking and testing that has gone into making
gnome games what it is today.


On Sun, 3 Sep 2006, Chris Rankin wrote:

> Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 22:20:43 +0100 (BST)
> From: Chris Rankin <rankincj yahoo com>
> To: Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>
> Cc: games-list gnome org
> Subject: Re: Sudoku Savant [was Re: Searching for a Sudoku client to put
>     into GNOME-games]
>
> --- Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie> wrote:
> > Generally speaking there is a need to use colour with some kind of shape
> > or texture so that things are still usable for people with poor colour
> > vision.  If you provide enough other information the colour may be an
> > optional extra.
>
> Hopefully, some of these screenshots will help explain the use of colour:
> https://sourceforge.net/project/screenshots.php?group_id=172187
>
> The "Manual solving example" shows the simple colouring algorithm as applied to the number 7. Some
> rows, columns and boxes have only 2 candidate squares for the number 7, so we colour each one with
> one of two colours. When we're done, we look for one of two cases:
>
> a) Another candidate square for 7 that shares a row, column or box with
> both colours. E.g. square(4,5) shares a row with square(4,2) and a
> column with square(0,5). This means that square(4,5) cannot be 7 because
> exactly one of the other two squares must be 7.

Thanks for taking the time to explain, I figured it was something along
those lines and the colour really is just an optional extra already.  If
you are aware that the colour is not of any use to some users I suppose
that is enough.  (Also I suppose users could pick colours which contrast
more sharply if they wanted.)

> > More screenshots please!

> I have uploaded two more to Sourceforge.

Thanks.  You didn't have to but you did so very quickly.  I'm sure others
will appreciate being able to see at a glance that Sudoku Savant supports
these features.  It is interesting how much you can glean from just a
screenshot (and the contrast of how often proprietary software fails to
provide convenient screenshots on their websites).

> And yes, it supports 16x16 grids. The limit of the grid size is
> approximately the number of bits in a 32 bit integer, except that 31 is
> prime, so we have 5x6 or 6x5 boxes. But anything bigger wouldn't fit on
> my 1280x1024 screen anyway.

There are many different resolutions, many different font sizes and
probably a few savants out there who might just play a massive grid size.
If nothing else it is cool to be able to have it on a feature checklist
(call me cynical but dont underestimate the importance of a bit of
marketing).  I would hope you could make Sudoku Savant scalable, the
necessity of accessibility themes with large fonts forces you to do it
anyway so you may as well turn the accessibility requirement into a
distinct feature for all users. If your game was scalable you might then
consider making it possible to hide the status bar and Fullscreen.

Available screen space brings me to other possible issues.  Your use of
frames doesn't fit in with the HIG (it would I admit take me a while to
figure out how else to do it).  The numbers outside the box feel a lot
like rulers in a drawing program and they are something I would probably
want to hide for a cleaner less cluttered visual aesthetic (and possible
more space but that is incidental).

You might want to consider using a standard GtkAbout dialog.  I'd do it in
python not glade, leave the GUI work to the toolkit in this special case.
Same probably goes for the file chooser, no need to use glade unless you
are really doing something different to customize it.

Although it does look as if you have something resembing a status bar you
do not seem to be using a standard status bar widget (which includes a
grippie in the corner).

Suduko Savant has an Options menu, Gnome Games uses a Settings menu.  It
is up to you if you want to fit in better with Gnome games.  The Gnome
Guidelines recommend only using a menu/submenu for 3 items or more
although many do bend this rule.  I think a menu labelled Size might be
more obvious than Geometry.  It would be clearer to layout the dialog with
each label before the number box and put each on a seperate line to make
it explicitly clear which is width and which is height.

Still talking about the board size/geometry but if you look at Windows
Minesweeper it has menu items for Beginner, Intermediate, Expert, and
Custom... size layouts.  Gnomines doesn't provide the three extra menus
but I think it would be better if it did (and I should file a request).
You might want to consider providing menu items for 4x4 (beginner), 9x9
(normal/intermediate), 16x16 (expert) and "Custom...".

Translation is tough work, so I always ask developers to use Stock items
wherever possible.  "File, Open" does let the stock label show through,
unfortunately it needs to be "File, Open..." so you cannot use it in that
case.  You can make use of stock items for  Save, About, and Quit.

Note: None of the current Gnome games include a save game feature.
Callum mentioned this was largely intentional for simplicity.
Let me say that if you want to save files you should then use a file
menu rather than a Game menu and I am glad to see you have done so.

> > Gnome Games is not fully keyboard accessible (not even very keyboard
> > accessible) but it is worth keeping in mind for the long run.
>
> Oh, I agree it would be a good thing to have. Adding full keyboard
> support to the menus would be trival. But keyboard support to the grid
> itself would probably be horrible to do.

Back to Gnumeric, reusing their widgets might be the best hope but again
long term.  No worries.

> > ... I fully expect several different Sudoku schemas to appear.
>
> Until an actual Open Standard for such a schema appears on the scene, I
> am more than happy to use simple, portable, editable ASCII text instead.

Sounds good to me.  XML is only really useful if everyone else is using
too and can actually agree on a standard schema.

Thanks for reading this far, the pedantic detail is even making me tired
too but maybe I can think of more things later.  Hope this helps ;)

Goodnight.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/



P.S.  strangely I find myself with two copies of sudoku-savant
sudoku-savant-1.1.tar.bz2
sudoku-savant-2.1.tar.bz2
both with the same date and size.

P.P.S.  Your mileage may vary.  I've done the required reading and I know
a few things but I do not claim to be an expert.  Use the advice provided
as you see fit.  Send donations to the gnome foundation, or not.  It is up
to you.