Delfibs

[DeAnimator]

I regularly use the sytem window in javafibs for various things - one good example is if there is lag - many commands sent by the client never make it to fibs - a good way to know where you are is to keep an eye on the system window and see if fibs responds to the command - then you know if it happpened or not.  At the moment it is scrolling by too quickly with log ins, log outs, match reports etc - and the 'hold' feature doesnt work.

I'd want to hide most of that stuff in the system window - match reports, logins, drops and shouts from other people mainly. So then it wouldn't scroll so much in the first place. But a 'hold' feature when scrolling manually would be handy too.

Another bug - commands typed into the system get echoed twice.
And another - if you type 'show saved' to see if anyone has logged in to finish a game, the 'Match | Show saved match' lists all games twice. Shouldn't that item be on the View menu?

Also typing 'toggle silent' doesn't work. Most of the time I don't want to  see shouts. As I can't hide the shout window if I want to kibitz, I should be able to toggle shouts off.

The person developing Delfibs is going to have a lot of work to do when they get back from holiday...

[diane]

Toggle silent does sort of work - you see other's shouts - but you cant shout    

[DeAnimator]

Toggle silent does sort of work - you see other's shouts - but you cant shout 

Ah, my mistake for not knowing what toggle silent actually does...

[Hardy_whv]

I tried DelFIBS recently and the first look and feel was really good  

I did not have time to go into detail yet. I only noticed one thing that should be changed on next opportunity: When saving the password for the login, it should nevertheless been displayed as "******" instead of showing the password with it's real letters.

Success in your further development work!


Hardy    

[delfibs]

thanks for all your suggestions.
I try to answer to some questions.

1-The system tab. Most of the lines you find here are there only to help me with debuging. Only the lines that appears twice will stay in the final version

2-With the tell function, the normal way to use it is: right click on a player in the players list and choose 'Tell' in the pop up menu, then the name of that player will be added to the drop down menu. If someone chats with you his name is also added.

3-Hide the shouts: ok you'll have that in a future version, the space will be use by the chat window.

4-bug when you type show saved.  Need to be corrected

5-*** in the sameword file : need to be corrected

6- the window showing the saved matches should also show if the other person is logged in and ready to play. (as the text console version does). Even better if you can invite them from there too: good idea i'll work on that.

7-Checkers animation speed : i'll add slower speeds

8-Sound: i can add sounds but i have no sounds files. If someone has goods waves files for dices ,checkers, etc please send them to me.

9-Some other things the chat window could display:
Your rating changes if you have it toggled on.
Whether someone from a saved game has logged on or is ready to play. good ideas

For the chat window, i'm open to any suggestions. Would you prefer to type the name yourself? Would it be a good idea to have a different tab for every player you are chating with? Would you like a dropdown menu whith the name of all the players connected?

[diane]

For the chat window, i'm open to any suggestions. Would you prefer to type the name yourself? Would it be a good idea to have a different tab for every player you are chating with? Would you like a dropdown menu whith the name of all the players connected?

If it works as you said - highlight the name and click and it appears in the list - that sounds ideal - I think a list of too many names would be cumbersome - and encourage sending tells to the wrong player  

I like the option of separate tabs for chat - as long as it isnt going to mean boxes appearing over the playing surface again - and that I wont miss tells because I am not clicked on that tab - how you get around that I am not sure.  In a tourney I am often conversing with many players - and need to see all the tells as soon as they appear - in case someone has a problem.  Perhaps an option to tabulate or integrate as the user wishes?  

[delfibs]

Delfibs 0.9 beta 11 available

-sounds added
-You can hide shouts in the preference menu
-Checkers speed can be set from *1/4 to *10 the default speed
-bug when you type show saved corrected
-password edit will show ***
-saved matches : the command has gone to the view menu, you can see the status of the players 'offline,playing.etc..'
if you select a saved match from here and the player is ready, you can invite him by clicking on the 'invite' button
-if a player with a saved match logs in, you will be told in the chat window.
-ratings changes will show in the system window if you have ratings toggle on
-system window will show only interestings things.
-bug with post crawford matches where the doubling dice didn't show is corrected


the final version isn't far away, i need to correct some bugs witch make the client crash.
They are difficult to find because they occur rarely.

If you want more features to be added it's now.
tell me if you find bugs.

[adrian]

GREAT WORK!

Please add the feature to fully resize program window (my screen is 1280x800...), and different sounds for shout, tell, kibitz, whisper, along with the option to enable/disable them ( this is very useful when running tourneys, so I will know where to check for the message)
Also, a separate, detachable shout window will be nice.

[DeAnimator]

Delfibs 0.9 beta 11 available

All the new features are great - good job!

But.... I'm now getting video display errors on the board during checker animation that wasn't there in beta 10. As the pieces move, there is a lot of horizontal flickering all over the board area - double buffering turned off?

This is with the Titanium board. Unfortunately the bottom chunk of the board is not displaying properly either so it's a bit unusable right now. Gone back to beta 10 for now.

[delfibs]

de animator
i see what  the error is, i fix it as soon as i can

[don]

I like the way you have RepBot wired in.

Have you considered also wiring in the FIBS help files?  It would save a lot of questions from new users.  IMO, a lot of GUIs could benefit from this.

--
don

[delfibs]

delfibs beta 12
Correct the flickering problem
add an option for debugging in the preferences menu. If you activate it a small window shows witch lists the lines parsed by the pgm. if the client crashes please post here the last 10 lines.

[DeAnimator]

delfibs beta 12
Correct the flickering problem

Ah, much better. I can appreciate the other new features now.

[Fergus]

I downloaded the client today and had to abandon a match when I rolled a 3-3 and it would only let me do two of the four moves.

To get around it I did a manual move using the server command interface but there was no feedback that it had worked either on the board (which I wouldn't have expected anyway) or in the server output window (which I would). At some point in all the clicking and typing a popup box informed me of some error. Getting my match going was my priority so I didn't write it down but it wasn't a happy little popup.

I killed the program and continued the match in 3DFibs. I discovered there that the manual move had, in fact, worked successfully and that my opponent had played on.

I look forward to a bug free version. It's going to be a great client so keep up the good work. :-D

[Fergus]

Some pointers..

Remembering where the window was when last used is an absolute must. Using Windows' default positioning is strictly for amateurs!   So too, must remember things like column sorting order, last tab used, etc.

Modal dialogues like "foobar gives up, barfly wins one point" - avoid these like the plague. What if I want to have the program watch a match or series of matches (eg. a bot) for me but I'm away for 15 minutes, or what if I'm working in another program and just want Fibs in the background (perhaps I like to hear dice click and pieces get moved  )? Besides, having to click to say I've seen something that I may not care to see anyway is bad UI design. And having Windows chime its ALERT sound is a big too. If I'm watching the game, I don't need to be alerted and if I'm away I don't want to rush back just to be told a game's ended!

loose.wav - The Internet's favourite spelling mistake! It's LOSE    

[delfibs]

The modal dialogs can be disable in preference->General->show message at the end of a match
remember windows position, tab used and colomn sorting order... : why not , i personally don't find it usefull but if other ask...
For the bug, with no precise data, i can't do anythink.
If you test the program please eanble the debug mode in Preference-> General->Debug mode on , if you meet a bug deconnect and  post then 10 last lines.
Thanks for your interest.

[adrian]

 
No direct answer from a mod means I must read help files again..

I`ll do. It is worth to read.