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 Entire forum ➜ MUSHclient ➜ General ➜ Separate windows - ideas, anyone? :)

Separate windows - ideas, anyone? :)

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Posted by Poromenos   Greece  (1,037 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #15 on Thu 03 Jun 2004 12:36 PM (UTC)
Message
Yeah, I agree with Flannel completely. Even with SphereXP :p It's a great idea with a horrible implementation... For MC windows, there should ideally be an option to have the window be "internal" or "external"...

Vidi, Vici, Veni.
http://porocrom.poromenos.org/ Read it!
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Posted by Norbert   USA  (61 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #16 on Thu 03 Jun 2004 12:53 PM (UTC)
Message
Quote:
you can just make a window that acts as a toolbar

The point of making a toolbar is to be able to bring the windows to the front easily. Making another window would not solve this problem because that window could just as easily get lost behind world windows and notepad windows. I play with MUSHclient maximized and all the worlds maximized. Maybe put the toolbar on the Separate window, then only have the one window, that has ALL of the extra windows inside of it. This would avoid useless clutter on the screen. The activity toolbar works great already, it shows when connected, new activity or even when a world is loaded by changing color. A separate window will be custom to the player, so the ability to customize the toolbar to have maybe a letter instead of a number would be utilizing something that is already known to work. Utilizing the toolbar would also help retain MUSHclient's look.

And as for
Quote:
Possible extras might be:
I think they all are great and would love to see them all added, but I had to pick only one to be added it would be
Quote:
Logging the contents of these windows as they are written to (eg. a log of chats from the chat window)


And if this separate window thing goes bust and doesn't work I'd like to see the ablitity to have more than one logfile per world, then I could just log my chats instead of having to create these little windows in the first place.

Norbert

-Do you know what it's like to fall in the mud and get kicked... in the head... with an iron boot?
Of course you don't, no one does. It never happens
It's a dumb question... skip it.
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Posted by Dubthach   (47 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #17 on Thu 03 Jun 2004 01:45 PM (UTC)
Message
I would like the ability to have these extra windows in a tabbed interface, with a keyboard shortcut to move between them for each world.

Also, please make sure the matching trigger can match on multiple things...I really like in DAOC how I have tells and says in one window, and more broad messages in another for instance. Also there are muds where the chats have a different format for the current player vs all other players:

You -chat- something.
Someone else -chats- something.
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Posted by Shadowfyr   USA  (1,791 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #18 on Thu 03 Jun 2004 06:01 PM (UTC)
Message
Ugh... Until Nick fixes the, "Whoops! Somehow I forgot the size of all your worlds/windows", we don't need more MDI's But beyond that, not everyone uses Mushclient maximized. I don't for several reasons - 1) external editors and notepad, the internal one requires changing the size of the world window or buries it, neither is a good thing imho. 2) A looping traceroute/ping setup I wrote using QBasic, so when I get a lot of lag I can see if it is a router to the mud or some clown admin doing a global search for something 'on' then mud. I can also see when any network lag stops and I can play safely again. 3) Anything else I can manage to fit in the space to the right of the client, including the firework gadget I made for Mushclient that is designed to return the size of the desktop and of Mushclient and sandwitch itself in the space available.

Personally, the fact that Mushclient's Notepad and other windows are MDI is bad enough, I don't need something else cluttering up the inside of the Mushclient window, at least not unless it used a more advanced solution, like remembering how they where tiled and which ones I wanted to have appear with the world window, if any. Even then, I at least would find it seriously annoying. But then, I always suspected that people who use something often enough get used to the screwy interface, which btw probably explains Linux Gimp. lol

<Rant> Floating tools = good thing, Image windows that resize themselves to bury those tools and the other images, so it is hard to switch between them = bad idea. A MDI where most tools are in a single out of the way row to one side, you get 90% of the desktop to work on the image in, movable tool options float over the current image and your menus are always visible makes sense. Gimp steals like 60% of your work space with windows containing all the crap that should only be visible when the mouse moves over it, not when you get desperate and start hunting for the option to make it visible, and they should never disappear under the image you are working on, let alone hide it from you, both of which is equally stupid.<End Rant>

Anyway. The point of having windows or even toolbars with 'minimal' profiles is to stack them in a way that is useful. If you are layering windows one on top of the other, so they bury each other, then you are using them wrong in the first place. If the program forces you to do this, then... that's a design defect. Heck, a simple toolbar to switch between worlds could be an icon sitting in one corner of the desktop that changed color, blinked, stuck its tongue out at your, etc, when activity happen, then when you moved your mouse over it, expanded to show a full bar with buttons and the current state of every world, just click on the one indicating activity. **Minimal profile**, so they do what you need, without always getting in the way. Think outside the box, instead of trying to make everything look and act like one, then wondering why the big box you stick them in looks crowded. ;)
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Posted by Ked   Russia  (524 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #19 on Thu 03 Jun 2004 07:05 PM (UTC)
Message
Quote:
I would like the ability to have these extra windows in a tabbed interface, with a keyboard shortcut to move between them for each world.


I think the idea is to have extra windows plus to the main world window, not extra windows underneath the main world window. To rephrase Shadowfyr - if you have to stack those extra windows on top of each other then you are either doing something wrong, or if the program forces you to do it that way, then there's a problem with that program. Instead of stacking windows there should be a way to hide/show, size, and position them dynamically, which will allow you to change the layout without having to live with more toolbars, buttons, tabs, whatever.

Quote:
Also, please make sure the matching trigger can match on multiple things...


You can already do that using multiline regexp triggers.
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Posted by Flannel   USA  (1,230 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #20 on Thu 03 Jun 2004 08:41 PM (UTC)

Amended on Thu 03 Jun 2004 08:44 PM (UTC) by Flannel

Message
Quote:
And if this separate window thing goes bust and doesn't work I'd like to see the ablitity to have more than one logfile per world, then I could just log my chats instead of having to create these little windows in the first place.

You can already do that. Triggers, and then write to file.

Quote:

Quote:

Also, please make sure the matching trigger can match on multiple things...

You can already do that using multiline regexp triggers.


I think it was more along the lines of, you can currently do that either with multiple triggers, or many regexp's that are piped (|) together.



As for the "toolbar" world idea, Nick would probably have an ability to keep a window ontop. So this new window wouldnt get lost.

And I think the activity toolbar is plenty cluttered as it is. We always get requests to make it include pictures, or have 3.452 X 10^42 buttons, or whatnot, which really are more trouble than theyre worth. Although I will say If I had to pick something, I kind of like shadowfyrs solution. Having them roll out when you click on them etc, like the File menu.

~Flannel

Messiah of Rose
Eternity's Trials.

Clones are people two.
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Posted by Dubthach   (47 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #21 on Thu 03 Jun 2004 09:04 PM (UTC)

Amended on Thu 03 Jun 2004 09:05 PM (UTC) by Dubthach

Message

Quote:
I think the idea is to have extra windows plus to the main world window, not extra windows underneath the main world window.


Yes that does seem to be the prevailing opinion in this thread, but just because it is the prevailing opinion does not mean it is the best or that it will meet everyone's needs.

Quote:
To rephrase Shadowfyr - if you have to stack those extra windows on top of each other then you are either doing something wrong, or if the program forces you to do it that way, then there's a problem with that program.


Thanks. So if I have different needs than you, I'm doing something "wrong". That is a good way to argue.

Every MMORPG that I have played has this sort of interface, and I find it very useful.

My opinion on this subject is in this thread: http://www.gammon.com.au/forum/bbshowpost.php?bbsubject_id=3839
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (23,140 posts)  Bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #22 on Thu 03 Jun 2004 10:34 PM (UTC)
Message
Quote:

Merely positioning the window is not enough, you need to be able to set its size as well.


Naturally part of the position would be its height and width.

Quote:

Indeed, if each 'child' window had it's own auto-say setting, then it might be much easier for people to just type away in one of these subwindows


Can't help thinking you will run out of screen real-estate with lots of windows all with little input boxes under them. Plus, looking a bit funny.

Quote:

I guess the next question going to be, are all these things going to be accessed as object properties (Object oriented)? Or just like triggers/etc with a function that asks for a Window Name?


I was thinking of script functions like the other things. Something like:


CreatePane "name", "title", top, left, height, width, flags, textcolour, backcolour


Quote:

I do agree with Flannel about how it is generally easier and less confusing to access functions through object properties, instead of a mess of world.this, world.that stuff.


However, maybe you are right. :)

Quote:

Also, please make sure the matching trigger can match on multiple things


I would expect that multiple triggers could all send to the same window, thus different sorts of chats could all end up together.




That's all I have time for at this moment, will comment further later ...


- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Norbert   USA  (61 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #23 on Thu 03 Jun 2004 10:54 PM (UTC)
Message
Quote:
not everyone uses Mushclient maximized.

I understand that not everone uses Mushclient maximized, but do you understand that not everyone uses Mushclient like you do? From someone who does use Mushclient maximized I would find this helpful and useful to me.
Quote:
If you are layering windows one on top of the other, so they bury each other, then you are using them wrong in the first place.

Just because I don't use them like you doesn't mean I'm using them wrong, it's my preference.
Quote:
Think outside the box, instead of trying to make everything look and act like one, then wondering why the big box you stick them in looks crowded. ;)

My big box doesn't look crowded to me, I only have one window on the screen at a time because they are maximized.

I also understand that you can make files and call them log files using triggings and scripting. But that requires a lot of knowledge about scripting to get it to check and see if the files exist already and to create a new one for each day or time. Which would be a lot easier if I could use the script functions(LogSend,OpenLog,IsLogOpen, WriteLog, CloseLog) already defined in mushclient to make these files of specific information from the world and to continue to log everything else into another logfile.


Norbert

-Do you know what it's like to fall in the mud and get kicked... in the head... with an iron boot?
Of course you don't, no one does. It never happens
It's a dumb question... skip it.
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (23,140 posts)  Bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #24 on Fri 04 Jun 2004 03:10 AM (UTC)
Message
Quote:

I wouldn't however ever want to lose this from a log, just because it is being sent to another window. That would be really pointless.


Well, you won't have lost any existing logging.

Quote:

Personally, the fact that Mushclient's Notepad and other windows are MDI is bad enough, I don't need something else cluttering up the inside of the Mushclient window, at least not unless it used a more advanced solution ...


I'm not sure what the difference really is. If you make the MUSHclient window large, or maximised, then they are not really "cluttering up" the screen any more than they would be if they were not clipped to the MUSHclient frame. You only have so many pixels on the screen, however you look at it.

Quote:

As for the "toolbar" world idea, Nick would probably have an ability to keep a window ontop. So this new window wouldnt get lost.


Not necessarily. I never could get the Activity window to stay on top. Sometimes the libraries I used have their own ideas. Anyway, with (say) 8 worlds, all of which had 5 extra windows, do you really want them all "on top"? And which is *really* on top?

I had an idea that maybe when a world became inactive all its extra windows would disappear, to reduce the clutter, but maybe you *want* at least one extra window to stay visible so that you can keep an eye on progress.


- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Ked   Russia  (524 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #25 on Fri 04 Jun 2004 04:44 AM (UTC)
Message
Quote:
I had an idea that maybe when a world became inactive all its extra windows would disappear, to reduce the clutter, but maybe you *want* at least one extra window to stay visible so that you can keep an eye on progress.


How about letting the user explicitely specify certain windows as "always on top" and then treating the rest as child windows of the main world one and hiding them when the world window loses focus? That way you would remove responsibility from yourself for keeping track of what stays on top and what disappears, since that's not something you can plan but should be handled by the user according to his/her requirements. But there should still be a way to quickly hide any window - topmost or not - perhaps by doubleclicking on its caption or hitting a button there.
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Posted by Flannel   USA  (1,230 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #26 on Fri 04 Jun 2004 05:26 AM (UTC)
Message
Quote:

Not necessarily. I never could get the Activity window to stay on top. Sometimes the libraries I used have their own ideas. Anyway, with (say) 8 worlds, all of which had 5 extra windows, do you really want them all "on top"? And which is *really* on top?


I already posted this, but Ill repost, it was in the middle of a paragraph or something.

Quote:

Of course, upon writing this, I began to wonder how you would determine order if multiple windows were "always ontop". Some method of preference would have to be established, whether it was an "order" or layer type thing, with conflicts on the same value being solved by... who knows what, or some other method entirely.


Basically an "order" type thing, much like triggers. Higher (Or lower, for that matter) would appear ontop of other ones with a lower (or whatever) order/sequence/[whatever terminology].

~Flannel

Messiah of Rose
Eternity's Trials.

Clones are people two.
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Posted by Shadowfyr   USA  (1,791 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #27 on Fri 04 Jun 2004 05:28 AM (UTC)
Message
In reply to Norbert>

Quote:
I understand that not everone uses Mushclient maximized, but do you understand that not everyone uses Mushclient like you do? From someone who does use Mushclient maximized I would find this helpful and useful to me.


True. I wouldn't mind if you could have them internally for those that need them, but float them for others. This isn't impossible, though MS probably doesn't exactly make it easy with MFC. Same with Nick's comment about always on top. The most effective way is to use the API to set the zorder to topmost. This doesn't exactly prevent other topmost windows from covering it, but it does prevent it from being covered by the applications own windows "or" most other stuff. But, the key point here is that if for some reason it isn't practical for Nick to make them work both ways...

However, at worst, this would mean maybe have two different window types. One which will work MDI, but others that are more versitile. If nothing else, some people may even be using dual-head video cards, in which case, the maximum space for both a full screen Mushclient 'and' other windows effectively doubles. It also depends on your screen resolution. I use the highest my card can produce, so using a 12 point terminal font (which is fatter than the Lucida), I still end up with 110 columns of text and have 'almost' the full width of Mushclient still available for other windows. I would sort of like to use it for something. ;)

I understand that some people never have more than one thing visible at a time, but for those of us that can, it makes a difference, especially if the window includes stuff like maps, graphics (currently unsupported in Mushclient itself), notes, etc. We need something that solves both problems, not something that basically ends up being a color version of a notepad.

Comments to Nick>

Quote:
Can't help thinking you will run out of screen real-estate with lots of windows all with little input boxes under them. Plus, looking a bit funny.


Well.. That is why hiding (disabling it) by default would be useful. You don't want every window to have one, but when you do need it....

Quote:
Quote:
I wouldn't however ever want to lose this from a log, just because it is being sent to another window. That would be really pointless.


Well, you won't have lost any existing logging.


More a concern of what happens if you intend to omit the lines in question from the main output. That after all is sort of the point, getting all the stuff you don't need to see in the middle of your RP, combat, etc. out of the way, but still having it logged and visible in the secondary window. I don't log often, so I am not sure what does or doesn't happen to logging with 'omit from output', but as long as it doesn'y also 'omit from log', this isn't a problem. However, the tendency for more current functions to kill the line, then call scripts, etc. can be. The copy of such lines to the secondary window 'must' happen before it it omitted.

Quote:
I'm not sure what the difference really is. If you make the MUSHclient window large, or maximised, then they are not really "cluttering up" the screen any more than they would be if they were not clipped to the MUSHclient frame. You only have so many pixels on the screen, however you look at it.


True. The key here though is "if you make the MUSHclient window large, or maximised". As I said above, there are two cases where this is a major issue. 1) when you intentionally avoid making the window as big as necessary, so that you can see other programs/windows behind it. My Fireworks plugin requires this. 2) Someone with Dual-head video that may find it more convenient to place some or all of those extra windows on the other display.

While the second is a bit less likely for most people, a lot of us seem to be doing the first, and for the simple reason that some things need to be visible for us 'along side' the client, not underneath it. In general, for what I am likely to use these windows for, I don't need them to be really big and I have plenty of room in that slice of relatively unused screen space. I have 0 room in the client itself.

I also agree with Ked. There should be "always on top" *and* "always visible" options. An 'always visible' would stay if a) you minimize the main client or b) switch between worlds. While those that are merely 'always on top' will simply minimize the moment the client does or you change to a different world. One posibility is to allow the script to decide when and if to minimize/restore the window. That way the script can use loss or gain of focus to decide what windows should remain visible. It could be done both ways, though the ability to hide/show such windows from script is something that could prove good anyway. The main difference between it being an option is that you don't have to worry about minimizing all the ones you don't need to stay visible.
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (23,140 posts)  Bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #28 on Fri 04 Jun 2004 10:18 PM (UTC)
Message
OK, thanks for your comments. As far as possible I'll make little things like that options.

- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Neva   USA  (117 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #29 on Mon 21 Jun 2004 03:53 PM (UTC)
Message
I know this is dredging up an old thread, but I did want to add something:

Not every feature needs to be in this from the start, people. Jesus. I haven't been lurking around here much lately, I admit, but extra windows have been on the wish list for about three and a half million years at this point, and they don't need to do everything from the very beginning. Can't they just exist first, then we can figure out what additional options they need to serve the needs of the users?

Nick, rest assured, some of us will just be happy to have windows that work with colors and automatically empty themselves, as opposed to the Notepad. ;) Toolbars, 'always on top', auto hide... even size and position can be fixed every time you open it if necessary. SimpleMU*'s been able to filter WHO's into separate windows for how many years now, and people want to quibble over specifics? Just get the basics finished first so that those of us who do not care what format they are or what extra-special options they have can use them. Polish later!

(And much extra love for Nick for finally getting to this. Makes me feel positively giddy!)
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