Re: Sudoku Game and GSoC

[Chris Baines <cbaines8 gmail com>]

> If you are referring to the Vala port then things to work on are:
> 1. Making it match the existing Python version.  You just need to be
> able to run both side by side and check all the features from the old
> version work in the new one
> 2. Working on the tasks listed in
> https://live.gnome.org/GnomeGames/Modernisation - the GtkApplication
> task may be a good one to start with.

I think I am getting on well with the GtkApplication modernization.
However I am not really up to date on how Gnome app's are meant to be
built, for instance, for the menu, I have noticed when looking a
gnomine for example, that the menu and the toolbar have similar
options? Could you clarify this for me.

I also have written the following list of features/changes that I
thought might be good in the game, I am not sure if this will make
sense to anyone, but here go's. I am not planning to implement all of
this as part of GSoC, but I would like to. Feedback on what features
would be considered essential would help me when trying to improve my
schedule if possible.
    Interface
        Use GTKMenu and GTKApplication
            https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=664963
            https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=664970
        Game Interface
            Number Picker Popup
                Hide the number picker popup dialogs such that only
one is visible at a time
                Allow the resizing (maintaining the aspect ratio) of
the picker as you would any window
                Better sized text, and dynamically resizing with the
above scaling (as the text is a bit small at the moment)
            Top and bottom text entry
                Make the text entry box not overflow
                    https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=665235
            The Grid
                The selection method works alright at the moment,
probably be nice to allow the user to not select anything though.
                    https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=461096
                The colouring needs to be implemented
            Puzzle Hints and Help
                Replace Settings -> Show Possible Numbers with
Settings -> Auto-Complete Possible Numbers
                This will also disable editing the possible numbers
                Add Find Solutions
                    This will complete the sudoku if a single solution
is available, I am user what the behavior should be if more than one
solution is found...
                        This will probably use a recursive algorithm...
                        It could also be based on human reasoning,
allowing it to walk the user through the solution, there do exist some
quite complicated techniques...
                        http://www.sudokusolver.com/play/techniques/advanced/
                The Hint button will be implemented as before
                Highlighter
                    Different default colour for the Highlighter (its
a bit hard to see at the moment)
                    Also make it configurable
            Add a pause option on the toolbar and in the menu, as well
as adding a timer as in gnomine
        New Game Screen
            Consistent background colour (white box on grey background
at the moment)
            Better management of saved games
                Delete option
                Scrollbar to see them all
            Add custom option (for empty Sudoku)
                https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=559298
                https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=602655
                Custom sudoku is for perhaps doing one found elsewhere
in the program
        End of a game
            Implement the colours
                Decide what to do considering this bug, definately add
a configuration option to disable them
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=661450
            When finishing a puzzle, the user should be given the
option for an easier, same dificulty, or harder puzzle
                https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=541723
        Multiplayer
            https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=625960
        HiScore Support
            https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=664948
    Printing
        Add advanced printing options
            Booklet printing
                https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=663930
        Generation of puzzle’s might need consideration when  printing
large amounts, perhaps using a dialog with a progress bar
            https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=580055
        Print Puzzles of multiple difficulty levels
            https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=616365
    Puzzle Generation
        Multi-threaded
            https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=580056