Notice: Any messages purporting to come from this site telling you that your password has expired, or that you need to verify your details, confirm your email, resolve issues, making threats, or asking for money, are
spam. We do not email users with any such messages. If you have lost your password you can obtain a new one by using the
password reset link.
Entire forum
➜ MUSHclient
➜ Development
➜ The user interface
It is now over 60 days since the last post. This thread is closed.
Refresh page
| Posted by
| Twisol
USA (2,257 posts) Bio
|
| Date
| Fri 19 Feb 2010 05:21 AM (UTC) |
| Message
| One of the more common complaints I've heard about MUSHclient is that its UI is too confusing or not attractive. I'd like to start a discussion here on what would be nice to change, and what we could reasonably change.
To start off with, one of my slight-to-medium annoyances has been that the World Properties list on the left seems to have a rather odd ordering. Triggers, Aliases, and Timers, all of which are very similar, are all in completely separate groups. I personally think they would make more sense under Scripting (which only contains Scripts and Variables currently); I made the requisite changes under a separate git branch locally to try it out. I think it's much nicer.
So yeah, I'd like to hear what everyone else thinks about cleaning up the UI a bit. Thoughts? |
'Soludra' on Achaea
Blog: http://jonathan.com/
GitHub: http://github.com/Twisol | | Top |
|
| Posted by
| Nick Gammon
Australia (23,120 posts) Bio
Forum Administrator |
| Date
| Reply #1 on Fri 19 Feb 2010 06:34 AM (UTC) |
| Message
| I take your point, but say you have some black cats, black dogs, red cats and red dogs.
Are the dogs similar, or the red things similar? |
- Nick Gammon
www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com | | Top |
|
| Posted by
| Nick Gammon
Australia (23,120 posts) Bio
Forum Administrator |
| Date
| Reply #2 on Fri 19 Feb 2010 06:35 AM (UTC) |
| Message
| | Just to expand on that, the aliases are in the Input section, and the triggers are in the Output section, as they are related. |
- Nick Gammon
www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com | | Top |
|
| Posted by
| Twisol
USA (2,257 posts) Bio
|
| Date
| Reply #3 on Fri 19 Feb 2010 06:56 AM (UTC) Amended on Fri 19 Feb 2010 07:29 AM (UTC) by Twisol
|
| Message
| Triggers are under Appearance, actually. ;)
To explain my thought process, timers, aliases, and triggers are all "events". They respond to specific stimuli and react in remarkably similar ways - using the Send box, or calling a script function, for example. They're also logically connected: aliases and triggers are easily grouped together mentally, and they're very frequently used and accessed. Timers are perhaps less mentally associated because they respond to time, not input or output, but the only difference between all of them is what type of stimulus they respond to.
EDIT: I'll also point out that the Game -> Configure menu groups Timers, Triggers, and Aliases in the same section between menu separators; indeed, the preceeding section contains Scripts and Variables, too. I tend to use Game -> Configure a lot. ;)
EDIT 2: I've pushed the minor reordering under a separate branch, 'ui', to keep it separate from the main branch. |
'Soludra' on Achaea
Blog: http://jonathan.com/
GitHub: http://github.com/Twisol | | Top |
|
| Posted by
| Hokken
USA (18 posts) Bio
|
| Date
| Reply #4 on Fri 19 Feb 2010 07:05 PM (UTC) |
| Message
| | +1 for Twisol's suggestion, and I would add variables, too. It's a minor quibble, but I know that aliases, timers, triggers and variables are the sections I access the most often, and in my mind they are logically grouped together. Every other section is rarely changed once the world is configured. | | Top |
|
| Posted by
| Twisol
USA (2,257 posts) Bio
|
| Date
| Reply #5 on Fri 19 Feb 2010 07:10 PM (UTC) |
| Message
|
Hokken said:
+1 for Twisol's suggestion, and I would add variables, too. It's a minor quibble, but I know that aliases, timers, triggers and variables are the sections I access the most often, and in my mind they are logically grouped together. Every other section is rarely changed once the world is configured.
Variables are already under the Scripting header, so they wouldn't move at all if this were implemented. (I still agree, though.) |
'Soludra' on Achaea
Blog: http://jonathan.com/
GitHub: http://github.com/Twisol | | Top |
|
| Posted by
| Larkin
(278 posts) Bio
|
| Date
| Reply #6 on Tue 23 Feb 2010 01:44 AM (UTC) |
| Message
| I've been working on my own client project, based largely on the MUSHclient code. I've made many changes to the UI lately, using the MFC Feature Pack, that might inspire developers on this particular thread.
(Still a work in progress, but I do have the code hosted where people can find it, if you're interested.)
http://sites.google.com/site/iasmosis/home/mudderanewclient/mudder_main.png
http://sites.google.com/site/iasmosis/home/mudderanewclient/mudder_settings.png
http://sites.google.com/site/iasmosis/home/mudderanewclient/mudder_options.png | | Top |
|
| Posted by
| Twisol
USA (2,257 posts) Bio
|
| Date
| Reply #7 on Tue 23 Feb 2010 01:46 AM (UTC) |
| Message
| | That's looking really, really pretty, Larkin. Nice work! |
'Soludra' on Achaea
Blog: http://jonathan.com/
GitHub: http://github.com/Twisol | | Top |
|
| Posted by
| Nick Gammon
Australia (23,120 posts) Bio
Forum Administrator |
| Date
| Reply #8 on Tue 23 Feb 2010 05:08 AM (UTC) |
| Message
| That looks great!
And I have no objection to making the user interface better. :) |
- Nick Gammon
www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com | | Top |
|
| Posted by
| Rakon
USA (123 posts) Bio
|
| Date
| Reply #9 on Tue 23 Feb 2010 05:49 PM (UTC) |
| Message
| A pretty UI is lovely and all, but I use MUSHclient for the functionality versus it's looks. I don't have need for fancy buttons, gauges , graphics or what not that slows down any functional part of the program. zMUD was this way, in that it heralds looks and fancy output versus just being functional, and MUSHclient being easier to use (for me), and more functionally practical versus zMUD was one of the major reasons I started using it.
Also, the win 98 UI works better under WINE for me, than updated vista/aero stylings.
Not trying to discourage a rework, just putting in my two pence. |
Yes, I am a criminal.
My crime is that of curiosity.
My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like.
My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for. | | Top |
|
| Posted by
| Twisol
USA (2,257 posts) Bio
|
| Date
| Reply #10 on Tue 23 Feb 2010 05:56 PM (UTC) |
| Message
| | I'd like to discuss functional changes to the UI in this thread, yes. For example, the reordering of some of the scripting- and reflex-related configuration pages makes more sense to many. It's certainly not a big functional change, just a little tweak, but those things do add up. |
'Soludra' on Achaea
Blog: http://jonathan.com/
GitHub: http://github.com/Twisol | | Top |
|
| Posted by
| Larkin
(278 posts) Bio
|
| Date
| Reply #11 on Tue 23 Feb 2010 06:05 PM (UTC) |
| Message
| Thanks for the compliments on my UI!
My code uses a lot of the base code from MUSHclient to do the display, scripting, and a lot of the other really great things a MUD client should do, but it's a fair departure from the MUSHclient code, too. It's something I'm writing for myself and my own selfish purposes, but the code is publicly available for anyone who has an interest in coding something themselves. I've removed a lot of the things I don't use at all, and then gone and added or rewritten some of the things I use a lot. The UI being a big part of that.
Staying compliant with older Windows or working under WINE doesn't enter into my thinking at all, and I can see why that would be a concern of current MUSHclient users. However, for the UI to move ahead, I believe it should be made to take advantage of all the great innovations made in the last few years. Agreeing with Twisol, too, that at a minimum the UI should be re-organized to make things easier to find for the average user.
It would be nice, too, to gain access to the resources DLL (and anything else that might not be included already). Is there a particular reason it's not already available? | | Top |
|
| Posted by
| Nick Gammon
Australia (23,120 posts) Bio
Forum Administrator |
| Date
| Reply #12 on Tue 23 Feb 2010 06:11 PM (UTC) |
| Message
| |
| Posted by
| Twisol
USA (2,257 posts) Bio
|
| Date
| Reply #13 on Tue 16 Mar 2010 02:22 AM (UTC) |
| Message
| | Another small suggestion: It seems to me that Import/Export would be more descriptive than Save/Load. It's a really small change, but the small things do count. |
'Soludra' on Achaea
Blog: http://jonathan.com/
GitHub: http://github.com/Twisol | | Top |
|
The dates and times for posts above are shown in Universal Co-ordinated Time (UTC).
To show them in your local time you can join the forum, and then set the 'time correction' field in your profile to the number of hours difference between your location and UTC time.
39,407 views.
It is now over 60 days since the last post. This thread is closed.
Refresh page
![[Go to top]](/images/gototop.gif)
top