RE: [Bug-gnubg] Re: GNU Backgammon bugs

[Ian Shaw]

Øystein Johansen wrote:
> 
> MST wrote:
> 
> > I tried "Manual dice", too, but the "Manual dice" feature doesn´t 
> > offer random numbers and unfortunately its window covers what´s 
> > happening on the board (i.e. that´s invisible then).
> 
> With manual dice, you can get your own physical pair of dice, 
> roll them, and click them in to the game.
> 
> About the size of this window. I think this size is hard 
> coded into the program, I can make the standard size less?

I agree that the manual dice grid is too large; I've long found it 
unsatisfactory. It would be nice to have it smaller.
At the very least, the dice should be no larger than the dice displayed on the 
board. If the user can read those comfortably, there's no need for larger dice. 
The gaps between columns and rows could be reduced to save space, too.

There are other designs that could be considered, other than the 6x6 grid.

1) Two rows of dice, each with 1-6. The user clicks on the dice they want.

2) One row of dice numbered 1-6. The user clicks on the two dice they want. 
Clicking twice on the same number for doubles.

3) A dockable toolbar implementation of 2 would be very cool. I think the game 
would flow better if the board were not constantly obscured.

You could highlight/fade-out the first die selected. This happens on some 
online servers when the first die is played (or the second of doubles). This is 
quite neat.

At the start of the game, the first number clicked would be the player 1 die, 
the second would be player 0. (Or vice versa, but I think the former is more 
inuitive) 

-- Ian

("inuitive": in the style of Eskimos?. Of course, I mean "intuitive", but it's 
such a nice typo I had to keep it!)