Any plans to replace this program?

[Armin]

Originally Posted by ciaran_skye

Maybe set up a change queue or simply lock the interface to changes while processing occurs. I have a feeling the first option is almost impossible without dramatic changes to the code base and the second option would give the appearance of the program being slow or locking up. Though if processing speed increases sufficiently that second idea might not be too bad.

At one point (with the GCA4 codebase) I tried starting a simple change queue to see how things would go, but even as far as I got, I already saw problems: without immediately seeing the effects of the clicks, the user (me in this case) would think the click didn't take, and click again. Hilarity ensued.

What I'm doing right now (in the .Net version) is trying the interface locking (in some places; not a lot of interface yet). Most things seem to go fast enough to allow for that without seeming odd.

Originally Posted by ciaran_skye

For what it's worth, is the interface changing dramatically? There's been a subtle push in certain levels of software development away from the "classic" menu-driven WIMP-interface to ones that allow and give more direct visual clues. GCA could easily lose its menu structure in favor of a modal button-driven interface.

I'm not good with UI or graphic design, so my stuff tends to stay pretty conservative and old-fashioned. I'm trying to do stuff that provides more context clues, but we'll have to see how that goes. As for more button driven, I agree that GCA wouldn't have far to go for that, but again, not an area I'm good at.

And even in this day of the Microsoft Ribbon and smart-phone button pushing, I'm much faster using menus, because they have words that say what they do, rather than cryptic icons that I constantly forget what they're for....

Armin

[Armin]

Originally Posted by Urban

I for one would love to get the stuff from the many books/pdf files released the last few year added to the GURPS Character Assistant with a quality stamp on them.

I know you can add it yourself but since my know-how is lacking and my time limited I for one would support a pay for additions scheme similar to the one used for Hero Labs character software. Another benefit of this is more money to pay for upgrades but of course you must balance that against any potential loss of customers that want all future additions to the rules and content for free.

So far as I can determine, SJGames isn't interested in spending any money on supporting or developing GCA, which is why the data files are all written by volunteers. So, basically, if a volunteer has the time and the inclination, stuff gets written up and submitted for a book. Eric Smith, the Data File Coordinator, is also basically a volunteer, and does an awful lot of work. (Likewise, I do all GCA development on my own dime, and support here is by helpful and friendly users.)

But, basically, the only way things will come out more concurrently with book releases is if SJGames decides to start paying someone to write the data files while the book is in layout. And I simply don't see that as likely to happen. Even charging for the data file releases wouldn't necessarily cover the expense of someone having to do all the work, and that would get in the way of supporting GURPS with GCA.

But, if folks really want that, the best place to ask for it is through other means of feedback directly to SJGames--so far as I'm aware, nobody on staff reads this forum regularly.

Armin

[Angel Darkover]

Originally Posted by Armin

I'm not good with UI or graphic design, so my stuff tends to stay pretty conservative and old-fashioned. I'm trying to do stuff that provides more context clues, but we'll have to see how that goes. As for more button driven, I agree that GCA wouldn't have far to go for that, but again, not an area I'm good at.Armin

Here's an idea. There are artists in the audience (I'm more in your boat, but I know there are some out there). How about a contest? People can submit mock-ups for the new UI design, with features in use and what-not, to give the development team (you) a visual idea of how it should look. The submission (or submissions) that get chosen for the new UI results in the winner(s) getting credit on the new app and perhaps a signed copy (Armin, Eric B, and SJ himself) of the new product as it ships if you were to buy the non-digital version. Low price to pay for good artist work, and the contributors will know that they are helping improve the product that they will be using themselves. Win-win, as I see it.

Just a thought.

[Bruno]

I'm going to step right in here and say Artist is about as bad a choice for UI designer as Number Cruncher.

It's much better to have an ugly but excellent UI design than a pretty but totally hostile design. An ugly design can be prettied up, a hostile design will make your users riot whether it's pretty or ugly.

GCA's interface isn't hostile, but WIMP probably isn't the most excellent design pattern either, loath as I am to say it. I love WIMP and particularly dislike the damn ribbon and anything that changes my toolbars depending on what part of the program I've clicked on.


Unfortunately good UI design sense is a kind of rare specialty, as it requires a mind-set that's sort of orthagonal to the usual mindset that excels at programming.


I think the point I'm getting at is it's not an "Art" contest - any user (whether you can barely draw stick figures or are a master of oils) could be a person who has a great idea for the GCA interface. What we're talking about here is much more fundemental than colour schemes or what the icons should look like - it's mroe like "Where the icons should be at all" and "where are we using colour to mean something" (and are we implementing it in a way that's colour-blind friendly)

[Armin]

Yeah, as Bruno says, good UI design is a complex area. And even if someone comes up with a good mock-up, it's often difficult to extend the design ideas they incorporate into other areas of the program, or to implement them at all.

One place using tried and true designs, such as toolbars and menubars, excels is that most folks already know how to use them, even if they don't actually look around to see what the bits actually do.

As far as the general GCA interface, aside from the UI elements involved, GCA4 currently has two of them: the classic side-by-side lists view (embodied by all the trait tabs) and the QuickView.

I'm hoping to add a third, which I call Compact, in the next version. That'll be kind of a hybrid-everything-in-one-view kinda deal. The Compact view, as I have it now, looks like this. (Elements at the top of the window look a bit cluttered. I'll be looking at places to put the tabs and context toolbars to reduce that. I hope. Nothing here is guaranteed to survive or remain as shown. But I like it.)

Armin

[TorgSmith]

One feature request is to have money not spent in the status bar at the bottom. This way I don’t need to go to Quick View or the Attributes tab. If the total money is red have a negative value in the money not spent. This way it is easy to switch over to the advantages tab and click up the cash.

[TorgSmith]

Originally Posted by Alden_Loveshade

There may be a way to do it using those; I don't know.

The function if you want to copy something from one character to another:

1) Open up both the character you want to copy from and the one you want to copy to.

2) For the character you want to copy from
If you're in Quick View, double click on the heading for what you want to copy (Advantages, Skills, Spells, Equipment, etc.)
If you're not in Quick View, click on the heading for what you want to copy (Advantages, Skills, Spells, Equipment, etc.)

3) In the new window that appears, click and drag over what you want to copy (this can be one item or many).

4) Right click on the item(s).

5) One of the choices will be "Duplicate to Other Character." Move the mouse to that.

6) You'll see a list of character you have open. Move the mouse to the one to which you want to copy whatever item(s) you clicked and dragged over.

7) Click on the name of that character.

Thank you, I did not know this.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Armin

And even in this day of the Microsoft Ribbon and smart-phone button pushing, I'm much faster using menus, because they have words that say what they do, rather than cryptic icons that I constantly forget what they're for....

I love WIMP and particularly dislike the damn ribbon and anything that changes my toolbars depending on what part of the program I've clicked on.[/QUOTE]Let's face it, ribbon is neither here or there. It's very unwieldy compared to menus, and it's slower than hotkeys and CLI. It's basically worse than either of the 'original' approaches at both.

(For example, if I had to go through the menu/ribbon/toolbar every time I want to go to the definition of a variable, or rename a method, or the like, I'd actually consider re-installing AutoHotKey, manually creating a macro for a mouse-click series at given coordinates, and bind it to a key combination. Ribbons and toolbars are good for lazily doing something minor with one hand while sipping coffee; they're not supposed to act like a primary workhorse interface.)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by ciaran_skye

I'll give a perfect example of when it's annoying - making a member of an "Attractive" race "Beautiful." This requires adding the Disadvantage of "Not Attractive" then turning around and adding back the exact same Advantage that was removed. Let's not get into how difficult it is to add the same trait twice - especially when it's locked and hidden.

This isn't a problem with GCA, though, it's a problem with GURPS rules. That's how you are supposed to do it.

Now where GCA does mess this up is if you want to increase the SC number on a Disadvantage. By RAW the only part that counts against your disadvantage limit is the difference between the two, but GCA (at least the last I checked) counts the whole cost of the disadvantage when you do this.

[Bruno]

I r not interface designer, I r perl monstrous-cthuloid-code maintainer (kill it with fire!) but some principles are still dimly remembered from school and are relevant to "Modern UI stuff" and GCA.

* Show less stuff at once. Big lists don't help most people.

GURPS character creation is fundamentally about churning through "big lists", so a list-driven interface is unavoidable as far as I can tell. So to cut that down to a dull roar, we need to sort things and put them in filters.

GCA already lets us filter based on various categories, and has some (basic) ability to search on "One of several pre-defined Categories" or "Not in pre-defined Category XYZ". I would like to see this ability expanded.

I would like to be able to filter based on things more than the Category tags, and I would like to be able to assert "Must match ALL of these conditions" AND "None of THOSE conditions". First two non-Category things I'm acutely interested in when building a character: "Do I have all the prerequisites for this?" (spells, I'm looking at you - but also taboo traits and ads/disads) and "Do I have all the points available for this?" - compare point cost vs points left.

But it would also be useful to filter on things like "Traits with attack modes" or Traits with Bonuses or Traits with Conditionals.

If I've got a shorter list to work with, it's a LOT easier to plow through. Filtering on all the parts of the dataset available to us is one of those modern UI design concepts that lodged in my brain, because I like it.

Regardless of whether we can filter or not, I'd like "Taboo" or "not qualified" traits to be marked (in red or bold or italic or something) and I'd like to be able to sort on whether I'm "qualified" and on point cost. Frankly, if it's a column, I'd like to be able to sort by that column.

I'd like to be able to add more columns to the display to show data from other tags (or to hide columns, I suppose). Like the windows Detailed file/folder view. Combined by being able to sort by arbitrary column, that gives a lot of control over how I'm working with information.