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Bug 544358 - please add option to clear only upper or lower notes, or tie them to trackers
please add option to clear only upper or lower notes, or tie them to trackers
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: gnome-games-superseded
Classification: Deprecated
Component: gnome-sudoku
2.22.x
Other Linux
: Normal enhancement
: ---
Assigned To: GNOME Games maintainers
GNOME Games maintainers
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2008-07-23 14:37 UTC by Josselin Mouette
Modified: 2010-04-23 02:02 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: 2.19/2.20


Attachments
Expands the Edit->Clear options for more selective clearing. (11.23 KB, patch)
2010-04-19 06:11 UTC, Jim Ross
none Details | Review
patch screenshot (21.17 KB, image/jpeg)
2010-04-19 06:13 UTC, Jim Ross
  Details
Patch with "Reset Grid" and a "Clear All" submenu (11.46 KB, patch)
2010-04-21 04:49 UTC, Jim Ross
none Details | Review
Submenu screenshot (36.58 KB, image/jpeg)
2010-04-21 04:50 UTC, Jim Ross
  Details
Adds Game>Reset and Edit>Clear Notes (11.46 KB, patch)
2010-04-22 00:34 UTC, Jim Ross
none Details | Review
screenshot of the Game>Reset and Edit>Clear Notes patch (34.32 KB, image/jpeg)
2010-04-22 00:35 UTC, Jim Ross
  Details
Exclude option to clear top and bottom notes (10.46 KB, patch)
2010-04-22 03:51 UTC, Jim Ross
none Details | Review

Description Josselin Mouette 2008-07-23 14:37:48 UTC
[ Forwarded from http://bugs.debian.org/489823 by Eric Cooper ]

I like to use notes in conjunction with trackers.  If I reach a dead
end and clear the tracker, I have to clear the notes by hand.  I'd
like an option to selectively clear just the lower notes or just the
upper notes.

Alternatively, when using a tracker, you could track all subsequent
notes in the tracker's color, and clear just those notes when clearing
the tracker.
Comment 1 Allan Day 2008-07-24 01:41:36 UTC
I can confirm that there is no way to selectively clear notes in the current version (2.22.3) of Sudoku. Setting bug status to new.

Thanks for the bug report!
Comment 2 Ian Abbott 2008-10-30 17:16:22 UTC
I also vote for this feature enhancement for the same reason as Josselin.
Comment 3 Jim Ross 2010-04-19 06:11:31 UTC
Created attachment 159048 [details] [review]
Expands the Edit->Clear options for more selective clearing.

This is a good idea.  I've run into the same problem and would like to be able to clear things more selectively.  This patch expands the Edit->Clear menu items to handle for more selective note clearing.

I came up with the following options:
Clear Grid - <ctrl>b - Clears all the notes and cell values
Clear Values - <ctrl>v - Clears all the cell values
Clear Notes - <ctrl>j - Clears just the notes(top of cell)
Clear Hints - <ctrl>k - Clears just the hints(bottom of cell)
Clear Notes and Hints - <ctrl>l - Clears the notes(top) and hints(bottom)

The Clear Grid option is like the do-over button.  When you just want to ditch everything on the screen and start over.  I gave it the old Clear hotkey <ctrl>b.  

The Clear Values option is like the old Clear option except it has a different hotkey - <ctrl>v.  It just clears the cell values.

I decided to use Note and Hint for the nomenclature because it seemed more appropriate than using Top Notes and Bottom Notes - though that is exactly what they represent.  Clear Notes will clear all of the tops and Clear Hints will clear all of the bottoms.  Clear Hints does not differentiate between values that were put there by the hint button and notes the player makes in the bottom section of the cell - they all get cleared.

'Clear Notes' is always available during the game.  The 'Clear Hints' and 'Clear Notes and Hints' options are only available when the player is not using auto-hint.

All of the Clear options are undoable.
Comment 4 Jim Ross 2010-04-19 06:13:23 UTC
Created attachment 159049 [details]
patch screenshot

Here is a screenshot of the new Edit menu.
Comment 5 Thomas Andersen 2010-04-19 23:18:22 UTC
Hi Jim :)

Looks good from a guick look at the code. I'll see if I can commit this tomorrow. I just need to look at it a bit closer and it is getting a bit late here already.

I agree that calling the top/bottom notes and hints makes sense.

I a bit concerned though that we would be cluttering the UI a bit. Maybe it is all the "Clear ...." lined up that makes it feel that way. I'll test it a bit and see how it feels. Maybe we should even ask one of the usability experts for an opinion here.
Comment 6 Jim Ross 2010-04-19 23:48:43 UTC
I hear ya.  I guess it does look a little odd with all those clears in the menu.  Those 5 options cover every base.  We could trim them down but I think it would probably be more useful to the player to have them all as options.

Maybe something like 'Clear  ->' on its own with a sub menu covering all the bases.  Or a 'Clear...' option that pops up a dialog with the choices.  Or some sort of combination of that.  I agree, it would be good to get a usability expert if we could on this.  I'm not sure how that works around here.
Comment 7 Jim Ross 2010-04-21 04:49:43 UTC
Created attachment 159230 [details] [review]
Patch with "Reset Grid" and a "Clear All" submenu

Ok, I took a look at the usability guide.  The only concrete advice it could give on the submenu topic is "Do not create submenus with fewer than three items".  It did point out little tidbits that here and there that are maybe a little less obvious to the technically adept. :)

I went back and tried to rethink it in a more player perspective.  I came up with a "Reset Grid" option instead of "Clear Grid".  The other options i put in a sub-menu for "Clear All".

So this patch has
Reset Grid
Clear All ->
    Values
    Notes
    Hints
    Notes and hints

I think this way is more clear to the players then that first patch.
Comment 8 Jim Ross 2010-04-21 04:50:46 UTC
Created attachment 159231 [details]
Submenu screenshot

Here's a screenshot of the sub-menu patch that I just posted.
Comment 9 Robert Ancell 2010-04-21 07:00:50 UTC
Looking from a user perspective, what are the actions the user wants to do?

1. Restart the game if they've made too many errors and want to start from scratch.  I would expect them to use Game>Restart to start from scratch (clearing numbers, notes and trackers).  This is better than starting a new game as the user wants to "beat" the current puzzle.  This class of user is possibly also unaware of trackers and notes.

2. Manually make notes as they play.  If the notes get messed up or they are no longer useful then clear/hide them.

3. Make a guess and follow that solution (advanced user).  If the guess was wrong unwind back to before they made the guess.  This is what the trackers are for.  Any changes made while using a tracker should be undone (i.e. numbers and notes).

In summary:
- I think tracking the notes with the trackers must be done.
- I don't think you can distinguish between "notes" and "hints" as there is no difference visually (aside from Sudoku using the lower entry for the automatic hints).

The changes I would make are:
- Make notes tied to a tracker
- Move Edit>Clear to Game>Restart and clear both notes and numbers

Questions:
- Is there a case where you want to clear numbers and not notes? (If there is I'd add Edit>Clear Numbers).
Comment 10 Robert Ancell 2010-04-21 07:03:19 UTC
I meant to word that comment "This is what I *think* users want to do" - please critique.
Comment 11 Jim Ross 2010-04-21 22:19:28 UTC
I like the Game>Restart idea.  That makes more sense then Edit>Clear Grid.

Using "Note" as a name for the top section and "Hint" as a name for the bottom section made sense at first.  But maybe we should use "Upper Note" and "Lower Note" to name these areas instead.  The key point here is that clearing them will remove everything in the top section and/or the bottom section regardless of whether the player entered them manually or they were put there by the hint button.

I also don't think that there has ever been a time where I wanted to clear numbers without clearing the notes as well.  Thats a good point.  I had this option as Clear>Values, but now that you mention it - I don't think is very useful.

I think the the trackers should track notes as well.  Functionally, it is a different feature than clearing notes.  It would be useful to more players if both were done.  Maybe explaining how I like to play would help explain that argument.

I use the top notes to store box pairs - when a value can only fit in a pair of cells in a box.

I use the bottom notes to track alternate pairs for a particular number.  I'll use the letter a for the one path and b for the alternate path.  Sometimes I'll path out a second number as well using the letter x and z.

I also use the bottom notes to identify invalid values.  I do this with a - symbol.  So say if 5 can't go in a cell, I'll put a -5 in the bottom note.

I use the tracker to splat one number in all of its possible cells.  Any notes I take when doing this need to stick around when i clear the tracker values.  I may do this to several numbers, or maybe even all of the number, while looking at alternate pairs and discovering invalid values.  

You can kind of see an example of what I'm talking about in that second screenshot I posted.  The 8s are tracker splatted.  And the alternate pairs are being tracked with a and b for the number 5.

I also use the tracker to make a guess and follow that solution.  When using the tracker like this, it would be great if you could undo any note edits if the guess is wrong.  The keyword here is undo.  For the cell values there is no distinction between undoing a tracker and clearing it, because in this mode of play the values are added to empty cells.  So undoing them just clears them...or clearing them just undoes them - no difference.  The notes are different in this situation.  Existing notes may be deleted or modified.  New notes can be added.

It may be useful to more players if they could: 
1)clear tracker values - like we have now
and
2)undo tracker - rewinding any modifications to the notes and values made with the tracker.

I think having the trackers work something like that, along with the ability to clear the top and/or bottom notes(regardless of whether they are tracked or not) would be great.  Right now though, I'm just trying to take care of the clearing notes part.
Comment 12 Jim Ross 2010-04-22 00:34:24 UTC
Created attachment 159293 [details] [review]
Adds Game>Reset and Edit>Clear Notes

Here's a new patch with Robert's suggestions incorporated.

I moved Edit>Reset Grid to Game>Reset.

I removed the option to clear the just the values and renamed 'Clear All' to 'Clear Notes'.   The submenu selections are
>Top
>Bottom
>Top and Bottom
Comment 13 Jim Ross 2010-04-22 00:35:39 UTC
Created attachment 159294 [details]
screenshot of the Game>Reset and Edit>Clear Notes patch

This is a screenshot of the latest patch.
Comment 14 Robert Ancell 2010-04-22 01:18:45 UTC
Looks good, do we need to have "Clear top and bottom?". If not we can remove the submenu.  The cost of clearing both is either clicking the menu twice or pressing two shortcut keys.

What do you think Thomas?

I've opened bug 616460 to fix the issue of notes not being tracked by the trackers.
Comment 15 Jim Ross 2010-04-22 03:51:50 UTC
Created attachment 159304 [details] [review]
Exclude option to clear top and bottom notes

This patch excludes the "Clear top and bottom notes" action and puts the remaining 2 options directly in the Edit menu.

- Clear Top Notes
- Clear Bottom Notes

It looks much cleaner without the sub-menu.  Also, I tend to agree with you that hitting 2 hot keys or hitting the menu a couple of times is really not that difficult to do.
Comment 16 Thomas Andersen 2010-04-22 06:52:28 UTC
I think the latest patch with reset + clear top/bottom looks good. It is a lot less cluttered and game->reset is probably where users will look for that.

And it is really great that you take time to post screenshots of UI changes.
Comment 17 Robert Ancell 2010-04-22 23:47:12 UTC
Fix committed, thanks Jim!
Comment 18 Robert Ancell 2010-04-23 02:02:47 UTC
I've opened bug 616581 to make the clear lower notes behaviour simpler when "show possible numbers" is enabled.