GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 50704
Klondike doesn't have the option to deal 3 cards at a time.
Last modified: 2012-01-31 23:16:02 UTC
In a typical game of Klondike, you will deal 3 cards and only play the top card. This isn't what happens. Klondike in aisleriot deals one card. There should at least be an option between dealing 3 cards and one card.
I think he means "typical klondike copied from windows". :-)
*** Bug 93316 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
http://bugs.debian.org/254484 is asking for the same feature: The manual for Aisleriot implies that it is possible to enable a 3-card version of Klondike, presumably with infinite stock recycling. ("Three card deals: If checked, the Stock will deal three each time.") I can find no such control in the current Aisleriot. Enabling such a game is particularly important because this is the default Microsoft solitaire game. Windows users who became addicted to MS solitaire will expect to find an equivalent game on Linux.
Just an update on the status of this: there is code for klondike to do this (and always has been). What is missing is the code to generate the dialog to select this. I haven't got it as a high priority since auto-generating dialogs is messy and I'm not looking forward to it. The code was present in early versions of aisleriot, but I don't think it can be recycled. I agree that the option is desirable, aside from being the windows default it was how I was taught to play patience as a child. Both variants are common.
The documentation needs to be amended in some way (the easiest being to remove the section, perhaps in such a way that the change can easily be rolled back later). point me in the right direction and I'll try and do it. if the option had not mentioned in the documentation I would have simply assumed that this version of Solitare/Klondike was not exactly the same as what I first learnt as solitare. I agree that automatically generated users interfaces tend to be horrid. Ideally we want a single place for game specific options where it can be made clear to user that the options available change from game to game. (I'm thinking each game type would be treated almost like other programs treat plugins and you would have 'configure' option with the names list) bumping version number up from 2.0 because it is still an issue in Gnome 2.8
Perhaps doing these as GtkAction toggle items in the menu would be better than using a dialog? I don't think it would be hard to auto-generate them, though maybe not worth the effort or complexity since options are only supported in 2 games. Gconf support for these options may be stickier, though... if they are going to support schemeas, the options will be exposed to more than just the .scm files.
The schema need not be a problem. We can do horrible things like keep a key with a generic string that can then embed options like "klondike_cards=3, other_option=foo". We could even save some raw scheme code in the string, but all this is really no better than not having a schema at all (except for the threat of a future gconf not allowing schema-less keys). I haven't looked at it seriously, but the new GtkAction code probably makes things easier. The dialog problem could also be solved by letting the scheme code supply a string with embedded glade XML, assuming the dialog isn't too complex. OK, so these ideas are both hacks, but anything to avoid depending on the scheme bindings for GTK+ and gconf right ?
I have just placed in CVS code to enable the game-specific options, this includes 3-card deals for Klondike. The option is available under a special "Klondike" menu. Currently the game state is _not_ saved. This is some other nights work and until then this bug stays open. Four years and counting...
That last entry should probably have also mentioned "doesn't compile" as another attribute. That is fixed now, as well as the saving issue. All the gconf stuff (including the schema) is generated at run-time. There are still a few rough edges, but in general it works and so I am, finally, closing this bug.
I'm glad we have it on record that you acknowledge how hideous this is but not having a better idea I'll have to get back to you when I do... http://spooky-possum.org/cgi-bin/pyblosxom.cgi/options.html
I case you decide to rework this functionality later I noticed an alternative approach seen in a freeware game which was to simply have a Klondike game and a seperate "Klondike Deal 3" game ruleset.
This bug is being reassigned to the "general" component so we can close the aisleriot bugzilla component. Apologies for the mass email!