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Bug 346969 - more visual feedback when Paused
more visual feedback when Paused
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: gnome-games-superseded
Classification: Deprecated
Component: gnibbles
2.15.x
Other All
: Normal normal
: ---
Assigned To: GNOME Games maintainers
GNOME Games maintainers
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2006-07-08 08:46 UTC by Alan Horkan
Modified: 2006-07-15 12:02 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---


Attachments
patch adding Resume menu item when paused (3.39 KB, patch)
2006-07-13 08:52 UTC, Andreas Røsdal
none Details | Review

Description Alan Horkan 2006-07-08 08:46:00 UTC
When paused in Glines there isn't anything onscreen to show that you are currently paused.  An onscreen graphic overlay or perhaps overriding the status bar with a message saying pause might possibly be ways to address this.  (Not sure what implications Pause might have in multiplayer games.)

Part of the problem was I went away from the computer and wasn't sure what exactly I had been doing.  I hit space expecting it to unpause the game but nothing happened, then I hit the arrow keys and click on the game area expecting it to unpause and continue moving, but I did eventually remember to hi thte Pause/Break key to get things going again.  

It is only a minor issue but a little bit more onscreen information and it would be even less of an issue.
Comment 1 Andreas Røsdal 2006-07-08 09:16:19 UTC
I agree with you about this. I don't think that pause functionality has been implemented at all for glines. Patches for this is welcome.
Comment 2 Richard Hoelscher 2006-07-08 15:27:02 UTC
I do not think we should add visual feedback to pausable multiplayer glines until after we add deck bogosorting to aisleriot's Texas-Hold-Em.scm

Comment 3 Alan Horkan 2006-07-08 15:39:02 UTC
no need to be like that.  forget I mentioned multiplayer, it was incidental to the main point

A suitable status bar message shown in single player would address the basic problem, anything else would be gravy.  

(OS was Ubuntu on VMWare not Windows, setting to All). 
Comment 4 Richard Hoelscher 2006-07-08 15:40:45 UTC
Alan: No, the point is glines doesn't do multiplayer nor pause. 

Maybe you meant to file this for gnibbles? At the very least, it should use a "Pause / Resume" menu item like Gnometris.
Comment 5 Alan Horkan 2006-07-09 20:22:14 UTC
stupid f-ing Gnames, I meant the worm game.  sorry for the confusion.    

Why did you refile this against Windows?  My testing with VMWare and Ubuntu _linux_ doesn't make this platform specific.  If anything it should be filed as Linux (it was only filed as windows because of the web browser I'm using which is on an entirely different computer).  
Comment 6 Richard Hoelscher 2006-07-10 06:35:19 UTC
(Offtopic answer for Alan:
There was a midair collision... I started writing a comment (OS was still set for Windows), you added a new comment (changing the OS), and by the time I submitted my comment, Bugzilla infomed me that the bug had changed and gave me the option to commit the comment anyway. I told it to go ahead, and inadvertently, it imposed the same bug statutes that were set when I first wrote the comment (setting OS back to Windows))
Comment 7 Andreas Røsdal 2006-07-13 08:52:09 UTC
Created attachment 68847 [details] [review]
patch adding Resume menu item when paused
Comment 8 Andreas Røsdal 2006-07-13 08:58:28 UTC
Here is a patch modifying the Pause menu item to a Resume menu item when paused.
It should be enough visual feedback, for now. This makes the menu behave like in gnometris. 

Since there is an UI Change Announcement Period, this will have to be sent to gnome-doc-list@ as well, I guess. The patch does not add any new strings.
Comment 9 Andreas Røsdal 2006-07-14 19:25:14 UTC
I have committed a patch to make the pause/resume menu item consistent in gnomine, gnibbles and mahjongg. This should make it clear when the game is paused or not. See also Bug #347436.
Comment 10 Karderio 2006-07-14 20:52:02 UTC
Just wanted to shake my consistency stick at this :o) Could there be a common way to show that a game is paused, such as  writing "game paused" in the middle of the window, greying and optionally blanking the board ?

I have sent a mail to the gnome-doc-list about the changes, secretarial work suits me fine ;)

Love, Karderio
Comment 11 Alan Horkan 2006-07-15 07:39:40 UTC
>> patch adding Resume menu item when paused

you might want to run that past an accessibility expert
dynamically changning items can cause problems both in terms of usability and accessibility since users and screenreaders do not necessarily know to go back and check/reread the item to see if it has changed.  

(If it is already using a checkbox/radiobox item this might be enough to flag it as dynamically changable but I'm no accessibility expert.)

> could there be a common way to show that a game is paused

I was hoping for a status bar message, cause if Paused isn't useful status information I dont know what is.  

Comment 12 Andreas Røsdal 2006-07-15 08:33:21 UTC
>dynamically changning items can cause problems both in terms of usability and
accessibility since users and screenreaders do not necessarily know to go back
and check/reread the item to see if it has changed.  

Dynamically changing menu items is already reasonably common in gnome-games and other GNOME applications. See for example the fullscreen menu item in most games. I don't think this is problematic.

>I was hoping for a status bar message, cause if Paused isn't useful status
information I dont know what is.  

I will look closer at this and similar issues in the next development cycle, including possibly window-focus pause behaviour and indicating that the game is paused even more visually and consitently.

When Gnibbles is paused currently, the worms are not moving. That should be a very strong clue that the game is paused, for now. Right now gnibbles doesn't have a status bar for displaying such messages.

Comment 13 Alan Horkan 2006-07-15 12:02:02 UTC
> Right now gnibbles doesn't have a status bar for displaying such messages.

The gray bar area at the bottom of the window that does show scores and other information, and does effectively act as a status bar even though from your comments it must not be using a standard Status Bar widget.